Random thoughts (5) "Bay Bridge Tragedy"

Today, I woke up watching the news as usually to hear the tragic incident on the new Bay Bridge S curve that claim its first life. At 3:30am a 56 years old Hayward truck drive delivering Pears to a local grocery store going a little over the speed limit crashed into the sidewall and his big rig fell over 200 feet to Yerba Buena Island.

Watching the news and looking at the carnage left from the crash, got me thinking about the work and the progress Caltrans has done to improve the bridge. I have read that their has been over 40 crashes in the short time the S curve has been put in. This does not include today’s incident or the incident that included a beam snapping off and crashing into 3 drivers. Its hard for me to believe that Caltrans or Bay bridge engineers were not aware of the problems the S design can cause. It makes me sick that Caltrans, the City of SF, or even the State of CA does not step in and take action in changing this section immediately or accelerating a new portion of the bridge to avoid more crashes and the loss of more lives. I understand that it takes time planning and money to rebuild a new bridge, but shouldn’t Caltrans and the engineers have planned better to replace a highly dysfunctional section of the bridge? Shouldn’t engineer’s plan/design a better section than a S curve that would lead to so many accidents? Shouldn’t they have planned for the human element? Human error may have been the cause of this incident or may be the cause of the 40 or so auto accidents, but shouldn’t these engineers and Bay Bridge officials done more research to see what a accident ratio or the possibilities of fatalities due to excessive speed? It’s hard for me to believe that these engineers and officials were naive to believe that everyone would abide by a 40mph speed limit when they’re use to driving 60mph during rush hour.

In today’s society of spending cash for absurd items, it amazes me that officials have not decided to speed up the process of completing the new bridge. It makes me wonder if we have put a dollar sign on the cost of life. How many more accidents will it cost, how many more lives must be lost, until Caltrans, the Cities of the Bay Area or the State of CA decide its time to make this bridge right!

-ML