Crews
worked to clear wreckage from a fatal head-on collision
on the Golden Gate Bridge, the scene of 15 such crashes
since 1970.
A fatal head-on collision on the Golden Gate Bridge produced
a huge traffic backup.
Chronicle
photo by Deanne Fitzmaurice
San Francisco
-- A head-on crash on the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday killed
one driver and closed the span to traffic for nearly an
hour, renewing debate over a 3-year- old plan to install
a movable median barrier on the bridge. Authorities say
the wreck occurred at 9:43 a.m. near the south tower when
a Chevrolet Blazer heading south in the fast lane drifted
into northbound traffic and slammed into a Ford Taurus.
The
driver of the Blazer, a 60-year-old Crockett man whose name
was not released, died three hours later at San Francisco
General Hospital. The Taurus driver, 37-year-old Craig Meyers
of Arlington, Va., suffered leg and ear injuries and was
listed in fair condition. His passenger, Corey Gonzales,
32, suffered minor injuries. The couple were in the Bay
Area on business.
California Highway Patrol Officer Deven Piazza said investigators
don't know why the Blazer swerved onto the wrong side of
the bridge. The driver was conscious after the wreck, "talking
to the officer, saying he could not breathe, but he never
made any statements as to what happened," Piazza said.
The
accident shut down the bridge for about an hour. The two
southbound lanes were reopened at 10:33 a.m. and the four
northbound lanes were opened just before 11 a.m. The crash
brought new calls for the bridge district directors to install
a median barrier that could be moved from one lane to another,
depending on the number of lanes needed for commute traffic.
"It's obvious every time there is a head-on collision,
there is a need for a barrier," said Robert
M. Guernsey, Founder of "Citizens for a Safe Golden
Gate Bridge," a San Anselmo inventor who first proposed
the idea in 1996. "It will save lives and prevent head-on
collisions."
The district
agreed to study a proposed $7 million barrier in 1998, and
has since been conducting engineering studies to test its
safety and affect on traffic. Meanwhile, traffic fines have
been doubled on the bridge and the CHP has stepped up enforcement.
Officials said accidents on the bridge have been cut in
half the last two years, from 50 a year to 25.
Since authorities
started to keep statistics in 1970, there have 35 traffic
deaths on the bridge, 15 involving head-on crashes. The
median barrier being studied is a one-foot-wide steel wall
that could be moved from lane to lane by a special truck.
It would be narrower than the typical two-foot concrete
barrier, yet would have to be strong enough not to give
way if hit by a car.
A prototype has
been built and crash-tested, but the district has budgeted
no money to build it. The bigger problem, though, are the
"technical and safety issues," said Denis Mulligan,
bridge district engineer. One potential problem, bridge
authorities say, is that any structure would narrow lane
widths to less than 10 feet, increasing the risk of sideswipes
and other accidents. The typical freeway lane is 12 feet
wide.
Other problems
are where to store the 50-foot-long "zipper truck"
equipment needed to move the barrier on the bridge, and
how to clear a path for tow trucks and emergency vehicles
to cross the barrier to get to stalled or wrecked vehicles.
"We want
to make sure that if we decide to move ahead with the movable
median barrier, that we don't have unintended consequences
that are worse than the problem we're trying to solve,"
said Karry Witt, the bridge district manager. Officials
are awaiting the results of a second engineering study,
due this fall, before deciding whether to move ahead.
"We're chipping
away to getting answers to these things," Witt said.
"We owe it to the 42 million vehicles that cross the
bridge each year to make sure that we have really, really
studied this thing."
Guernsey
said, "The bridge district is dragging its feet and
has no interest in a barrier. I've tried everything possible,"
he said. "There's no money in it for them -- it's out
of their pockets, with no return."
John
Ehlen, a retired Bechtel engineer, has
pledged $100,000 from his own foundation's money for the
proposed barrier. He said 9 1/2-foot lanes have already
proved successful on the Auckland Harbor bridge in New Zealand
and elsewhere.
Ehlen is frustrated
at the pace of the bridge district board to embrace the
concept. "I'm an engineer," he said. "I'm
not supposed to get angry."
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