Behind our house, the hills rise steeply. Moeser is virtually unbike-able, rising quickly into the heavens. This afternoon a semi truck lost its brakes at the top of the hill and hit huge speeds on the way down (I heard 100 mph being thrown around at the accident site). Slammed through multiple vehicles, then overturned in someone’s house just one block away from ours, and burst into flames. The house burned down. Cars it hit on the way down reduced to hideous smooshes. Eight people injured, some critically. One young boy apparently hanging by a thread, though no one died. Strangely, the resulting power outage (power pole taken clear out, live wires hurt some teenagers) reached all the way to Berkeley, some 20,000 people without power, but one block away, our power unaffected.
Hurtling Semi
Music: Dust Brothers :: Chemical Burn
On the 11 o’clock news they said the boy’s condition had been upgraded … I’m glad you and your family are all right. I grew up out there and going up and down Moeser, Terrace, Cutting et al was always a terrifying little adventure, my first thought was that it was good it wasn’t the end of the school day with the junior high and community center in the truck’s path, it could have been a lot worse…fyi littleyellowdifferent posted a piece on this, too.