Fatal Pileup Snarls Golden Gate Bridge
Evening commuters backed up to downtown S.F.
A speeding Mercedes crossed the center divider on the
Golden Gate Bridge yesterday afternoon and caused a
fatal multi-car pileup that partially closed the span for
nearly four hours, the California Highway Patrol said. The
high speed crash caused a chain reaction accident involving
nine other vehicles, turned bridge approaches into a huge
parking lot and clogged miles of San Francisco and Marin
County roadways. A 38 year old woman driving a BMW
southbound died instantly in the head-on crash. Authorities
withheld her name until relatives could be notified.
The driver of the Mercedes Benz sedan, Joseph Cowan, a
56yearold Novato man, suffered major injuries and was
admitted to Marin County General Hospital with multiple
facial fractures and lacerations. A nursing supervisor said
he was in serious condition after six hours of surgery last
night. The CHP said Cowan was northbound in the fast lane: at "a high rate of speed" when he encountered slower
traffic and changed lanes into the southbound lane to pass
the northbound traffic. Cowan's Mercedes was so
completely shredded that it was not immediately clear to
onlookers whether it was one vehicle or two rammed
together.
At least two other victims, men in their 20s, were admitted
to San Francisco General Hospital, one with a spleen injury
and the other with a possible collapsed lung. They also had
cuts, scrapes and bruises. The small Honda they had been
riding in was destroyed, its front end smashed all the way
back to the rear of the engine compartment.
Bridge authorities said the accident occurred at 3:23 p.m.,
the very beginning of the afternoon commute rush. The
bridge was rendered impassable immediately. It took more
than an hour to get one lane of traffic moving again, and the entire span was not clear until 7:13 p.m.-by which time
frustrated commuters were backed up all the way into
downtown San Francisco and Marin City.
In Marin County, Highway 101 was packed with an unbroken
line of cars. In San Francisco, grid locked vehicles stretched
back along Lombard Street to Van Ness Avenue, while side
streets that lead to the span were choked as far back as
Golden Gate Park and the Marina. Commuters quickly
realized they were stranded and shut off their engines. Some
got out of their autos to stretch their legs, while others listened
intently to their car radios, hoping for news of progress in
clearing the roadway. On Crissy Field Avenue, a
muni bus
driver sat resignedly in his No. 29 Sunset bus while his solo
passenger waited outside, smoking a cigarette. The driver,
Terry Mauricio, an 11year veteran of the city transit system,
said he was heading toward the bridge at 4:13 p.m. when he
became snared in the backup.
"I called Central as soon as I got stuck," he said with a shrug.
"They told me there was an accident on the bridge and that I
should wait until it was clear." Mauricio was not alone.
Dozens of Golden Gate Transit buses and private charter
lines-filled with passengers bound for Santa Rosa, San Rafael
and other North Bay destinations-were hemmed in by the
traffic. Lucky northbound bus passengers fortunate enough to
get back to the Ferry Building were able to catch ferryboats
to the North Bay. Unfortunately, one of Golden Gate Transit's
ferries had been taken out of service earlier, so commuters
experienced delays up to an hour even by using the marine
route. Nor was Highway 101 the only one affected by traffic
problems. A pair of smoky grass fires on Altamont Pass shut
down Interstate 580 for part of yesterday afternoon, forcing
the Highway Patrol to escort drivers over the busy pass in
groups of 15 or 20 cars at a time.
By Charles Burress and Bill Wallace
Chronicle Staff Writers
San Francisco Chronicle Tuesday, June 25, 1996