Bizarre San Francisco Crash Leaves Truck Leaning Against Muni Bus
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A multi-vehicle crash in San Francisco's Ingleside neighborhood created quite a scene with a pick-up landing on top of a car with its back end sticking through the window of a Muni bus.
The crash at about 11:30 a.m. involving multiple vehicles on Ocean Avenue close to Phelan Avenue left the white Certa Pro Painters work truck on top of a Taurus and leaning against the 49 Van Ness/Mission bus at an angle. The accident scene was right by City College of San Francisco and near the end of the 49 bus line.
Muni personnel and San Francisco Police officers responded to the scene. Despite the force of the accident that nearly upended the truck, reportedly no one was injured.
"Well I was sitting at a stop light and I felt this thump on the back of my car. Then I got out of my car and saw this movie scene behind me," said witness Laura Burkhart.
KPIX 5 spoke to Fernando Brajas, the man who was driving the truck, who explained what happened.
"So I just started slowing down cause there was a red light. And I just felt like the truck start going up. Then I started smelling gasoline, said Brajas.
As one would expect with such a spectacular crash, cleaning up the mess took a while.
After some pushing, pulling and scraping, tow truck operators decided that the best way to clear the crash was to move the bus first, then lift the truck up in the air and pull the Taurus out from underneath.
The whole operation took about 30 minutes.
The accident forced the southbound buses on the 49 line to turn around at Persia for a time until it was cleared.
The crash was just one of the problems plaguing Muni on Friday.
Trains were running again on the M-Ocean View light-rail line following an early morning derailment near 19th Avenue that halted service for more than six hours, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
At least one of the wheel trucks on a train carrying six passengers went off the tracks near 19th Avenue and Holloway Street around 6:20 a.m., according to Muni spokesman Paul Rose.
There were no injuries in the derailment, but it blocked traffic on the light-rail line until shortly after 1 p.m.
Rose said the incident caused some damage to the surface around the rail and repairs had to be made and a test train run through the area before service could resume.
The cause of the derailment remains under investigation.
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