An out-of-control dump truck careened down several blocks in San Francisco’s Portola neighborhood Tuesday morning, slamming into cars and injuring at least two people before overturning on a Highway 101 overpass and dumping its load of debris across the freeway, officials said.
All southbound lanes of Highway 101 were shut down at the Silver Avenue overpass as crews from multiple agencies scrambled to clean up the destruction.
The truck, operated by Daly City company, Evergreen Recycling Express, took off eastbound on Silver Avenue around 8:50 a.m. when it slammed into a white GMC pickup truck and a blue Toyota sedan, flipping the Toyota over and sending it into a tree in front of a home on Silver at Somerset Street, said Mindy Talmadge, a spokeswoman with the San Francisco Fire Department.
After continuing for at least four blocks, the truck hit a traffic signal, power pole and barreled through barrier fence on the south side of Silver Avenue and tipped over, dumping its load of construction debris onto the southbound lanes of Highway 101, said Officer Grace Grace Gatpadan, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department.
Two people in vehicles the dump truck hit were injured and taken in ambulances to a hospital. The dump-truck driver crawl out of his rig on his own through the broken windshield. He was cooperating with investigators, who where trying to determine how he lost control of his truck.
Crews from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. were at the scene cutting power to downed electrical wires.
California Highway Patrol officers and CalTrans crews were working to clean up Highway 101, which officials said that would remain closed for an undetermined amount of time.