Truck Driver Suffers Major Injuries in I-80 Crash with Buses

Update:

A pickup truck driver is in a hospital with major injuries after being involved in a collision with two transit buses that snarled traffic on eastbound Interstate Highway 80 in Pinole this morning, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.

The three-vehicle crash was reported a short time before 6 a.m. on eastbound Highway 80 near the Appian Way on-ramp, according to the CHP. CHP Officer Sean Wilkenfeld said a transit bus crashed into another passenger bus that had stalled in the fast lane and a 53-year-old Richmond man driving a pickup truck then collided with the two buses.

The truck driver became trapped inside his vehicle and fire crews were called to extricate him. He was then airlifted to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek with major injuries, including possible broken bones, but is expected to survive, Wilkenfeld said.

One of three passengers aboard one of the transit buses was taken to a hospital with a complaint of pain suffered in the collision, the officer said. No passengers were aboard the second bus and no other injuries were reported. Wilkenfeld said one of the buses involved was a Western Contra Costa Transit Authority bus and said he didn’t know which transit agency the second bus was from. Speed appears to have been a factor in the collision, but the circumstances that caused the crash are under investigation, according to Wilkenfeld.

The crash clogged traffic in the area for more than an hour, closing three eastbound lanes until about 7:20 a.m., according to the CHP.

Original story:

A collision between two buses blocked multiple lanes of eastbound Interstate Highway 80 for more than an hour this morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The crash was reported shortly before 6 a.m. near the Appian Way on-ramp to eastbound Highway 80. At least one person suffered serious injuries in the crash and was taken to a hospital, CHP officials said.

The three left eastbound lanes of the highway were blocked for more than an hour and reopened at about 7:20 a.m., CHP Officer Ron Simmons said.

—By Bay City News