Blaze Consumes Big Rig Carrying a Load of Wine Along Bridge
This next accident could have had dire consequences. Yesterday morning at around 10 am, a tractor trailer was heading east along the the Richmond-San Rafael bridge when, for unknown reasons, the truck caught fire.
The 60,000 pound tractor trailer, which was hauling a load of Korbel sparkling wine, pulled over after another driver alerted the truck operator to the fact that his vehicle had caught fire. The driver of the tractor trailer exited the vehicle and watched as the truck portion of the vehicle was consumed. Fortunately, the trailer part of the big rig was unscathed, so no wine was damaged and no persons were injured.
The California Highway Patrol responded to the incident. As a result of the blaze, officials were forced to close the eastbound lanes, but this only lasted for ten minutes while the San Rafael Fire Department worked to put out the blaze. However, the rightmost lane had to be closed until just after 1 in the afternoon so that debris could be moved out of the roadway. This caused major traffic headaches for commuters.
40 gallons of diesel were spilled, but the spill was reportedly contained. The bridge had no damage.
I’m glad as a Sacramento personal injury lawyer that the driver of the truck escaped harm, as did various passersby. The incident could have proven a lot worse had the driver not been alerted, and I once again advise as a car accident attorney in Sacramento that people pay close attention to vehicles around them in case something like this occurs.
