I-680 Opens Following Overturned Big Rig, Fuel Spill

Bay City News Service

All lanes of Interstate Highway 680 near Bernal Avenue in Pleasanton have re-opened following a big rig crash that required about seven  hours of clean-up, a California Highway Patrol officer said this morning.

The CHP received a report of the crash around 9:55 p.m. Sunday of  a big rig with an attached trailer driving northbound along Highway 680 south of Sunol Boulevard. The big rig jack-knifed into the roadway's center divider, leaving the truck on its side across northbound lanes and the trailer in southbound lanes, CHP Officer Steve Creel said.

The big rig's driver, 62-year-old William Andrews, suffered only minor injuries in the crash, which sent chunks of debris into the roadway that hit about a dozen other vehicles, Creel said.

Some of those drivers also suffered minor injuries and did not need to be hospitalized, he said.

Hazardous materials workers were on the scene for several hours this morning to carefully handle 32,000 pounds of cargo inside the trailer, including Lithium and other chemicals that are flammable when combined with water, the officer said.

Crews also cleared a roughly 25-gallon diesel spill from the crash.

Creel said the truck driver was making a delivery from Lathrop to San Jose at the time of the collision.