Crash Closes Highway Connector For More Than 12 Hours

SAN LEANDRO, CA — A connector ramp between Interstate Highway 238 and Interstate Highway 880 in San Leandro will remain closed into the evening hours Wednesday after a big-rig carrying produce crashed and caught fire in the early morning hours, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The crash was reported at 2:19 a.m. on northbound Highway 238 after a big-rig carrying about 40,000 pounds of produce hit a guardrail that splits connector ramps to northbound and southbound Highway 880 and overturned, CHP Officer Kylie Musselman said.

The driver was not injured in the crash but the truck ignited in flames and the burnt trailer is still blocking the ramp to southbound Highway 880, Musselman said. The ramp to northbound Highway 880 was blocked for hours but reopened by about 11:20 a.m., according to the CHP.

Crews have to offload the produce from the trailer, get it back upright and make repairs to the ramp to southbound Highway 880 before the roadway can reopen, and the estimate is that it will remain closed until at least 6 p.m., Musselman said.

The crash was one of two major wrecks Wednesday in the East Bay that backed up traffic for morning commuters. On westbound state Highway 24 in Oakland, a big-rig carrying lawn sod overturned shortly before 5 a.m., blocking the roadway for about five hours.

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