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Gonna come with a Recommendation for a Future Video on an intresting and somewhat forgotten disaster. namely The Sandö Bridge Disaster from 1939 aka Swedens worst construction Disaster with 18 lives lost when the almost complete Bridge Bow collapsed into the Ångerman River. The Bridge would more or less look the same as the one they built a few years after the disaster. The disaster also likely was the reason Why Almö bridge was built with Twin Metal bows instead of a concrete one, Together with the fact that most of the Concrete availible was used in an even bigger structure just a few KM's away Namely the Stenungsund Oil Powerplan which still to this day is the biggest powerplant built into a mountain in the world and that is without naming all the sexret bunkers and mountain rooms which was built into it incase USSR Decided to Nuke Sweden and Stenungsund so they made armored mountain rooms that can easily fit Lund Cathedral. One big reason why the Sandö Disaster was quickly forgotten was that it happened 31 august 1939, Germany invaded Poland 1 day later.
PD, hope you see this. The bus in the video @9:20 is NOT a school bus. It's an AC Transit (public transit) bus. If this picture is from the accident, then your narration is incorrect. It looks like when the bus rolled driver-less out of the tunnel, it came against rest on the last pillar support for the Control Center access road. (Behind the bus in the picture is where the exit for #4 bore is now).
One thing you forgot to mention about this particular tunnel fire. The temperatures from the fire were so high that it affected future safety designs of nuclear transports where nuclear cargo had to be able to withstand similar temperatures for hours on end. So something good did come out of this.
That is what standards are partly made of: lessons learned from accidents. The other part comes from reflecting on what could happen. But real life goes often further than what we thought was possible.
Great video. Just wanted to add as a PSA: If your vehicle starts making a horrible noise when you go into a tunnel, no it isn't. It's been making that noise for miles and you're only now hearing it reflect off the walls. You can get it thru the tunnel and pull over after you exit.
@@CantHandleThisCanYa Belt pinch, pulley bearing wearing out, too much or too little tension. Generally the timing and serpentine belts on most modern cars are not lubricated, as this defeats the purpose of a belt
@@kanedakrsaI thought it's the teeth on those belts that act almost like an inverted chain and spindle, making lube a good thing since it's not purely friction driven? wouldnt you want lube so the non force transferring parts? also "teeth"/"studs", whatever you want to call them, like lil gear teeth pointing inward instead of out on a belt. I could just be an idiot though. Plz correct me if I'm wrong!
My mom grew up in this area. She remembers going through the tunnel shortly after it reopened. You could feel the road get bumpy every time you passed over a place where there had once been a melted car. It’s pretty chilling to this day when you pass the “no hazardous materials” sign right before you enter the tunnel.
Was about to say the same thing about the no HAZMAT sign - drove through the tunnel a few times and every time I saw the sign it reminded me of what a mess it could be.
My dad used this tunnel on his way home from work every night fir years. He had just gone through the tunnel about 30 minutes before this accident. Super scary. I still don't like driving through these tunnels.
I grew up in Walnut Creek, where SR 24 intersects I 680 a few miles down from the tunnels. Can't tell you how many times I've been through the tunnels, as a kid, a car driver, and truck driver. The origional twin bores are pretty ragged. But the "new" fourth bore is luxurious. Full shoulders on both sides, digital signs, blowers at the top, exellent lighting. All mod cons.
I'm from LaMorinda, so I'm right at the east end of the tunnel, and my sister lives in Castro Valley, so visiting her means going through the tunnel (I have no interest in going through Canyon). The use bore 4 and bore 1. And man do people want you to speed through those narrow original bores!
@@savagegardenroxI just want to point out that LaMorinda is a portmanteau of the names of the 3 towns next to each other, Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda for those that don't know. Orinda is where the tunnel exits on the east, Lafayette is farther down the highway but next to Orinda, and Moraga is not quite south of Lafayette and Orinda but it has no freeway access.
I still live in Walnut Creek, off of Olympic Blvd, in the house that my husband's grandparents built in the early 1930's. I commute through the tunnel into SF daily. My husband also worked on the new tunnel.
If you drive through a tunnel regularly, this is your reminder to familiarise yourself with its safety systems and evacuation procedures. They'll probably have all that information on a website, but just taking conscious note of the exits, phones, signage, etc., on your next drive through is a start.
Yes!!! I used to drive thru the Caldecott 4 times a day as a school bus driver. The emergency phones number 1-13 from west to east. The doors to the escape tunnels were close to the entrance & exit of the tunnels but if something happened, you could determine from the number on the emergency phone which direction was closest to fresh air.
People today don’t pay much attention to details outside of the phones in their hands. I’m going to start photographing all of the drivers who pass me daily whilst on a phone, a think people would be really unpleasantly shocked. I’d estimate 70% of cars speeding by me at 75mph+ are driven by drivers who are texting and driving. It’s sad truly that we haven’t yet broken through to people about how dangerous this is. Also, it’s EVERYBODY. Not one particular age group, sex, religion, color, tax bracket etc!
People today don’t pay much attention to details outside of the phones in their hands. I’m going to start photographing all of the drivers who pass me daily whilst on a phone, a think people would be really unpleasantly shocked. I’d estimate 70% of cars speeding by me at 75mph+ are driven by drivers who are texting and driving. It’s sad truly that we haven’t yet broken through to people about how dangerous this is. Also, it’s EVERYBODY. Not one particular age group, sex, religion, color, tax bracket etc!
I didn't register empty at first and my heart sank. still, you can't help but to think about the children who were on that route, probably saw him everyday on their way to school and to some extent had a relationship with him. must've created a lot of "what if" and regret
To the best of my knowledge (I was regularly back and forth on that route in 1982), it was a deadheading Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit), not a school bus. It's not important, but if you look at the photos of the wreck at the west end, you can see the A/C logo on its side.
i first heard this story about 15 years ago from a man uniquely qualified to tell it. He was the first California Highway Patrolman on scene after the accident. As such, He was the lead investigator for the CHP on the case. In the court case that followed, He spent 3 straight weeks testifying on the witness stand!!! Can you imagine the stress?! It sent Him into an early retirement!
That poor man. I was a witness to a hit and run around 25 years ago, and later, I was the IT person who discovered illegal child SA material on another employee’s office computer. Both of these cases went to court and I had to testify. I was nervous as hell, jittery and anxious, and I wasn’t even the person who was in trouble! The defendant’s lawyers were tenacious and aggressive, and I was not used to that, so it rattled me a bit. Both of the cases I was part of were in court less than a day each. I think if they had gone on much longer, I would have needed therapy to cope with how freaked out the defence lawyers’ aggression made me. I can’t imagine having to testify for that awful length of time! Yikes!
@bobstevenson3130 you'd be surprised. We served a search warrant on a city hall computer for child porn. The guy was coming in after hours to access it.
This is my neck of the woods! As kids, my dad used to tell us this story every time we went through the tunnel. It used to terrify me going through it. Gotta love dad stories
Thank you John for bringing us an event which wasn't caused by the world's most hireable Safety Director. Great work! (6:24) The Safety Director made a guest appearance.
Oh my gosh, I had a listen to it three times - he was saying Alameda. That way he pronounced it I didn’t even recognize the word and I used to live in the area.
But I never would’ve considered the word Alameda, nearly as difficult as some of the place names in Massachusetts, Wisconsin or Minnesota. Those include truly unusual words that are approximations of Native American place names. Alameda is a fairly common word, I think it’s a Spanish word referring to poplar trees. At least I thought it was common enough that it should be easy to pronounce. Certainly not nearly as difficult as Oconomowoc.
Wow you did this one. I live a couple cities south of the tunnel. To this day hazardous materials are banned from passing through the Caldecott. I still hate going through there as the disaster is still etched in my memory and the older bores are too narrow IMO. The forth bore built in 2013 isn’t bad at all. Thanks for the video!
CARS were much narrower in those days. Mostly because PEOPLE were much narrower! Have a look in a classic car and you can see how narrow the seats were. I googled and a modern SUV is at least a foot wider than a 1930s Ford.
@@julierobinson3633 Cars nowadays are certainly wider than in the 30s, but I think we are still far behind the land yachts and gigantic station wagons of the 1970s
Another channel just covered the Sun Valley Mall airplane crash. It's weird suddenly seeing all these videos about stuff that happened in the Bay Area when I was a kid there. Felt like everyone had forgotten about them. Nice to see them remembered. The only thing I'd add is that I'm pretty sure it was an AC Transit bus (a public transport system from the area) not, thankfully, a school bus. But I could be wrong. Anyway, thanks for another interesting video!
AC transit bus. When it exited the tunnel, it hit the support pillar and split down the middle. traffic was horrible until the tunnel was put back into service. Witnesses said that the ceramic ceiling tiles broke from the heat and rained down making clinking sounds. What a mess.
@@kimmer6 I remember when we'd drive though the tunnel after it was always clear were the repairs were. It's been a long, long time since I've been though that tunnel since I haven't lived in the area since the late 90s so I don't know if it's still the case.
Yeah, it would have been odd for a school bus to be going through the Caldecott Tunnel at midnight, but an AC Transit bus would have possibly been making a scheduled run between east of the Berkeley Hills and Oakland or more likely just be headed back to the bus yard in Emeryville (next to Oakland) for the night.
That explains why there is a "no hazardous goods" prohibition on the Lowry tunnel off Interstate 94 in Minneapolis. It's a relatively short tunnel, but under no circumstances can big fuel tanker trucks etc use it.
Yup, they have to exit and go over the top of the tunnel on surface streets -- or take a different freeway altogether. (The Lowry Hill Tunnel was built to take I-94 under a major intersection where two major streets -- Hennepin Ave and Lyndale Ave -- cross at a narrow angle to each other.) And yah, as a kid I always noticed the "lane closed" signals over every lane in thr Lowry tunnel. The tunnel curves, so they're kinda necessary if someone crashes or stalls in there.
I live in Oakland Hills and remember this horrible tragedy very well. Another tragedy hit in that same area near the tunnel in 1992, an Oakland Hills Firestorm that destroyed 3500 homes, killed and injured number of people.
I tend to avoid being near a tanker truck when I am on the road. I've driven commercial trucks as well as buses and vans with passengers. I made it a habit to leave as much room as practical between me and all other vehicles, and as much room as possible between me, my passengers and tanker trucks.
If I'm on the open highway I will often follow tanker trucks, I figure the driver's got to be pretty sane and cautious so they're not likely to lead me into a dangerous situation. I do give them lots of distance.
I cannot think of a better way to kick off my weekend than with a brand new Plainly Difficult! You are a gentleman and a scholar! Cheers Mate and thank you again for all you do!
I don't know about over there but here in Australia, all tunnels have a broadband radio transmitter that covers the entire AM and FM bands. Yoare asked "via signage) to turn your radio on when entering and they can transmit warnings and evacuation orders over the radio. Every now and again when driving through you will hear the alert tone followed by a message about a breakdown, water on the road or the like come over the radio as well as being displayed on one of the several VMS boards hanging from the roof. And, of course, the entire length is under CCTV coverage from the control room. We have several tunnels several kilometres long around me and those all have first-response vehicles ready to go in a layaway at the mouth as well as dedicated fire mains with a backup main in the centre service tunnel. There are publically accessible hose reels every 100 metres located beside the doors for the emergency exits to the service tunnel. The road surface is concrete because asphalt burns. I honestly don't think they could be any safer.
@marvindebot3264 We have a system of low powered AM transmitters (IIRC, 1610 khz) for road warnings and such. We also had an experimental system where regular AM/FM broadcast stations would transmit emergency information along with their normal programming. This could be received on a compatible radio. I believe that there was some limited implementation for testing, but I don't know if it went beyond that. I don't know why, but they've never caught on with the public.
@@mikesmith-po8nd They only use it during unusual circumstances like two-way traffic, but the tunnel I go through most often in the US does have the radio capability.
Living here in New England I just have to say I love the little touch of what your weather is like at the time of recording. It makes the world a little smaller.
Awesome! I was hoping to finally see something about this disaster in the (usually boring) town I grew up in. I was born in Orinda right after this happened and my dad was stuck in the traffic jam right outside the tunnel bore as it as it was happening. Heard many a story about it as a kid going through. I got the point when he said " Loaded AC Transit bus versus loaded gasoline tanker. That's why tankers aren't allowed in it during the day. The fire was so hot, it melted the ceramic tiles that lined the bore and they could only identify the passengers by their teeth." 'Nuff said.
Concise, informative, clear, and engaging, despite the horrifying reality. As an SF Bay Area commuter I've always wondered about this disaster. Thank you again, John.
I lived in the area when this happened. The ceiling and walls were originally covered in sickly green tiles. The ceiling tiles had a habit of falling off on occasion pre tunnel fire. There was a beer truck that got consumed in the fire as well. The fire was so hot that the aluminum beer cans in the truck melted after the fire breached the truck box. The tunnel was retiled after the fire but not the ceiling. The ceiling was eventually covered with large panels that were mechanically attached. Still sickly green.
Is this why a lot of tunnels/bridges I have seen have a sign that says if you have a crash in the tunnel and the cars can still drive, you drive them out of the tunnel/off the bridge onto the shoulder of the road beyond and then inspect them? I thought it was to prevent traffic jams (we don't have many tunnels or real bridges here, just overpasses and underpasses) but now i suspect it is to prevent disasters.
I grew up right next to this tunnel and had always wondered what had happened. Thank you for this video and the funny fact that one of my favorite channels made a video exactly about it.
Three non-design errors appear at fault: 1. The drunk driver crashing and blocking the passing lane. 2. The truck driving in the passing lane. 3. The bus following the truck too closely to stop. Even if the first error wasn't caused by a drunk driver - say a mechanical failure - the same amount of blame would lie upon errors 2 and 3. This is to say nothing of the design failures of the tunnel (as described in the video) not providing enough tolerance for the inevitable human error with each vehicle having its own driver.
@@catipto 2. Is even worse. You should always drive at a speed, that you can stop for any obstacle. If you can't see behind a curve or corner, you should slow down enough to be able to stop for an obstacle that is just out of sight.
I'm fairly certain that the point was that there is no reason that anyone should have died, that isn't on the drunk driver. The drunk driver didn't cause there to be inadequate monitoring and warning systems that could (and would) have prevented more people entering the tunnel after the crash, they aren't the reason that there weren't more warning systems in the tunnel that could have notified people already in the tunnel to evacuate sooner. Do you know why air travel is the safest form of travel? It's because investigators refuse to accept human error as the cause, even if it is part of the cause. A great example of this was an almost crash (that's the other thing, they investigate close calls as well) where a pilot had brought a camera into the cockpit and carelessly set it down where it was adjusting some of the controls, unbeknownst to the crew. They could have written it off as pilot error and went on their way, but instead they asked the questions like: Was the pilot doing anything that violated airline policy? If not, was there something as simple as a checklist item that could be added to make sure pilots are verifying that nothing they've brought into the cockpit is obstructing the operation of the aircraft. Was there some way that the aircraft could have recognized that it was receiving unexpected inputs? If it could, how could it better warn the pilot about unexpected inputs so that the pilot is made aware of anything unusual? Would such a warning help more often than it hindered? That's how you make the world safer, you never stop at, "well, they were drunk, and the person behind them was following too closely/quickly, that explains it." You follow up and say, what can we do so that next time someone is drunk and the person behind them is following too closely and too quickly, not as many people die?
I lived in Oakland when the fire happened. There were a few times I HAD to drive thru that tunnel - even tho they'd fixed it, you could still see some smoke damaged tiles on the walls. Creepy as hell.
There are still some people who refuse to drive through the Caldecott Tunnel even after over 40 years of safety upgrades and new bores. The biggest problem now is that the long curve hides accidents at the midpoint. However, there are tons of fans, ducts, extinguishers etc to prevent this from happening again. There are also multiple evacuation routes for pedestrians in the tunnel.
A lot of those doors in bores 1-3 don't even open or are locked from the inside, and they keep the lights off in those access rooms so it would just be pitch black if you got inside. The whole place was in shambles when I was doing some work there 5 years ago. Fortunately a lot of the mechanical and electrical has been repaired, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere near there in a disaster
I live in San Francisco and I remember this. I'm in my 60's now, but this was a strange event. The fire melted the concrete in that tunnel. When the tanker truck exploded it acted like a cannon and shot out several vehicles and some human remains. The Caldecott Tunnel(s) still exists and work just fine. It's us that are the problem.
@@AirDOGGe I drove through the tunnel every day for years when I was a driver for a company in Fairfield. The bus was ejected although cannon was never used in any story I heard. It was an effect of the tanker exploding and destroying thousands of tiles that were on the walls and ceiling. The raod did have irregular areas where cars or trucks had been as the heat from the tanker blast melted a good portion of the cement. The bodies of the dead were burned but since they had already sucummed to the tosic smoke it was not made a big deal of. I remember driving through it days after it was reopened and after that made every attempt to not drive that way if possible again.
@@paulmcfadden5247 The bus was not ejected. It rolled on under it's own power after colliding and then ran into a concrete pillar just outside of the tunnel. That is documented.
In the Netherlands the rules for tunnels are now so strict that even in short ones, where you can almost see the exit when entering, they close down if a light or camera becomes inoperable... No cameras in a tunnel is unthinkable.
it was the 1980s, there was generally just almost no cameras anywhere at that time. I suspect it was cost and just the tech of the era, where as today they can have very compact cameras everywhere and multiple feeds on single screens.
Theres a tunnel just north of LA that back in the 90's, i believe, that had a wreck and torched people. Im an OTR truck driver and i remember seeing the scorch marks at the exit of the tunnel that stayed around for years.
You should do a video about the Brattli tunnel fire in Norway: A truck with 27 tons of cheese products (Brunost, basically boiled down and caramelized whey) autoignited inside the tunnel and burned for four days. The tunnel was kinda busted after that... No deaths tho, so it might make for a short video without the Grimdark.
I live just on the east side of the Caldecott tunnel and have to drive through it to visit my sister or my grandmother and to work shifts as a locum vet tech. Driving through Redwood Canyon is terrifying and avoiding that route is essential for my mental health. There are now 4 bores for the tunnel, and tankers are permitted in NONE of them. The fourth bore is the only one to have a breakdown lane, as well.
After my career as a mainframe computer operator for a very large San Francisco-based oil company ended due to downsizing in 1992, I obtained a commercial driver license, and drove for companies based in the SF Bay area. Three years into my new profession, I began to drive tanker trucks. Initially, I hauled sulphuric acid, and a few years later, I began to haul gasoline. During my gasoline hauling years, I met drivers who were hauling gasoline at the time of the Caldecott Tunnel disaster and the earthquake that had occurred in 1989, while the World Series was being played in San Francisco. When you haul hazmat, you must focus only on your immediate task in the moment. Dwelling on "what COULD happen", might create an interruption in your ability to concentrate, and thus cause the very thing you were dreading. Be safe out there!
I think my anxiety partially draws me to your videos. It's good to know what the points of failure were for disasters so I can try to gauge how safe I am in a tunnel, a tall building, a convention center etc. I usually look at how something is constructed and appreciate that many of its features were put in after learning from past mistakes. Thanks for your videos and the awareness and peace of mind they have given me.
@@WezzleG I think that you can tell when something is shoddily constructed. Seeing cracks or uneven floors is a bad sign for example. On the other hand, you can tell if something was extremely engineered: the Hoover dam and att stadium for example. Sure, there are the ones you can't tell. That's why I'm always a little anxious when I go anywhere and where the videos help in knowing where the likely point of failure is. Also being able to tell if there is enough room in an area to escape, or knowing that if you hear creaking and moaning it's also a good sign to leave
@@danielle3064 true, but unless you're visiting somewhere with really bad regulations like China, most of these incidents (in these vids) have some kind of human error triggering the disaster
@@danielle3064 The design of the tunnel in this video reminded me of the tunnel under the Detroit river, connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit. That thing's always made me nervous, (as driving under a river probably should), and I've often wondered how many times disaster's been narrowly averted in there...
l knew of the disaster when l moved to the Bay Area 30 years ago and am always reminded of it when passing the signage about the limited hours. Thanks for providing a thorough telling of the story.
i grew up in walnut creek and on that night my best friend and i were staying up late being kids. his dad was on his way home from the city, san francisco, and i remember the breaking news. we had to wait for so long to hear from his dad. he had not got to the tunnel yet but was driving up when it happened. he said it was a fire ball that came out and everything in the tunnel was gone. some had almost no remains. wow what a flashback. great job on this, my thoughts go out to the lost.❤
@@kastandlee You got the pronunciation right. But, "AC" stood for Alameda - Contra Costa. There weren't enough riders to keep the Contra Costa routes going. It would be completely different today.
@@vpolite1 Ah, yes, of course. It's been too long since I moved out of the Bay Area. I lived in Alameda county for around ten years before moving to northern Nevada in 2011.
@vpolite1 AC transit serves routes in western Contra Costa county: Richmond and El Cerito. These cities are the northern extension of the Oakland, Berkeley, etc urban area.
@edwardblair4096 They have a few routes that service those area. But, it is not their focus. All the transit districts bleed into their neighboring districts. AC Transit used to serve more of Contra Costa when it was initially setup. But, there weren't that many people. Now, 3 different agencies serve the county. Combining them would make more sense.
Another excellent video John. Yes, vehicles carrying hazardous materials weren't specifically prohibited from using the tunnel at the time. However, Federal regulations did, and still do, require companies that routinely transport hazmat shipments to develop routes that avoid tunnels unless, based on overall safety considerations, there is no practical alternate route. In their review of the accident, the NTSB determined the oil company's analysis resulting in the decision to allow their tankers to use the Caldecott Tunnel instead of alternate routes was based principally on convenience instead of potential risks associated with the tunnel routing (one more for the bingo card?).
Besides the Mont Blanc tunnel disaster, they're several others like this. The Gottard road tunnel in Switzerland had 11 motorists killed after 2 semi trucks collided head on and caught fire. In the Salang tunnel near the Afghanistan/Russia border, a Soviet military convoy consisting of armored trucks and equipment collided with a civilian fuel tanker truck. In the confusing, military soldiers assumed it was an attack and sealed both entrances to the tunnel, leaving under 1000 people dead.
CoCo County has a few notable disasters associated with it if you're interested in covering more; Port Chicago explosion and the Sunvalley Mall plane crash come to mind off the top of my head. Edit: another great video. Happy holidays from a currently rainy corner of CoCo County
I lived in San Francisco when this happened and now my dad lives on that mountain Ridge where the tunnel goes through maybe 5 miles away. I was a motorcycle courier in the Bay Area and I drove through that tunnel many times after this when they actually stopped tankers from driving through it. That was a crazy crazy thing that I peripherally was involved in good video.
I remember this horrific tragedy when it happened way back in April of 1982 it was a truly shocking and gruesome event fire,death,destruction and carnage in the tunnel!
Whenever reading warning signs and labels, i often wonder what sort of disaster must have created a need for it. Thanks for sharing your time and efforts on figuring one more road sign out.
Watched this video last night. Woke up this morning and needed to drive from sf to the east bay and a car fire inside the tunnel shut down both of the eastbound bores for most of the day. The alternate route made and added time made me appreciate this tunnel even more.
I remain astounded by the ability of an UK 'reporter' to give accurate reviews of US history. I thank you, should I ever visit the UIK I shall buy you all the thick, yeasty brown liquid you call beer that I can afford.
I don't have a fear of tunnels or bridges. However, I have always been uncomfortable when entering these tunnels. I drove trucks through there many times and never felt safe. Just too narrow. I remember that horrible crash. It was a sad day in the Bay Area.
The bus is a public (AC Transit) bus, not a school bus. I live near there & I remember that happening. Thank you for covering this Plainly Difficult incident in my local area.
There's a third tunnel added. It's huge. The other two are claustrophobic compared to the new one. I drove through those tunnels for years. Didn't know about this event, thanks for putting it out there.
An aspect that you may not have known was a number of autos entered the tunnel and seeing the collision before the ignition all reversed and exited from the east end of the tunnel thereby avoiding becoming casualties the disaster. A fourth bore of modern design was added at a later date.
John, Thank you for posting this important hiatorical feature. I was working in the Bay Area at that time in 1982, such that I'm well aware of this unfortunate accident. I assure everyone present that John's account is most accurate. The following is a feature not well understood about the Caldecotr Tunnel fire. While working in the warehouse of a ceramic tile warehouse back in April 1982, I answered the phone one day to someone wanting an estimate on an incredibly large supply of tile that they might want to purchase For the sake of privacy I leave out the name of the tile distributor that I worked for Normally, tile in America is sold by the square foot. We're not on the metric system. This fellow, however, asked for the price of and availability of exactly, 'Eleven thousand square METERS of tile. I almost shit myself, but knew instantaneously that this man's request was something that the company's ownership really needed to address. I was out of my league here and knew it. I did jot down the number of the merchandise. It was a standard 4 & 1/4 x 4 &1/4 inch ceramic tile in almond color. So I called the boss on the intercom after placing the prospective client on hold. However, I did ask for a job name first before putting the man on hold. He replied, "Caldecott Tunnel Job" Oh my God that's an awfully large order. However once I referred the prospective client to the boss, it was immediately out of my hands. It wasnt til after quiting that job that I discovered that my bbosses actually did sell that job to the tunnel contractor. 9 x 11, 000 = 99,000. The manufacture probably made roughly 40 grand and my bosses made a cool $99,000 Everyone was happy. Today, of the three tunnels, there is only one with tile on the walls. That is of the three going through the Berkeley hills and called the Caldecott,
Very interesting. I'm not sure why they would ever have allowed certain hazmat to be transported through the tunnels. I've been going through the tunnels on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, since the late 50's and I don't believe that many types of hazmat has ever allowed in them. One way or another, lessons are learned the hard way.
Have you done a video on the Oakland Hills Firestorm in 1991? Multiple factors contributed to the loss of life and property. Part of the fire was around the Caldecott Tunnel. Ashes fell in the yard of my family home in San Francisco.
Yup, I somehow remember that being on a Sunday in 1991, because I was watching the 49ers live on my tv, and I wondered what is all that black cloud of smoke coming over the top of candlestick park. Then we all found out on the evening news!!! 👍
I grew up in the Bay Area and this is just one of several horrible tragedies that I can recall. The Oakland Hills fire. The Loma Prieta earthquake. The plane crashing into the Sunvalley mall.
The era-correct cars are an excellent touch! I had family that lived nearby as a kid and grew up going through the tunnel a few times a year and it always creeped me out after hearing the story
The Caldecott tunnel was part on my daily commute from 1980 to 2021. I remember hitting traffic that morning due to the closure of the bore and when I finally emerged on the west side I was astonished to see a metro bus smashed into a support pylon and split open like a banana peel. I had no idea what had happened since this was before the internet or the 24 hour a day news phenomenon.
I was living in Pleasant Hill, CA in April 1982 and commuted to work through the tunnel to work in Emeryville, CA. I decided to work later than usual that day (April 7). If I had left earlier I may have been caught in the tunnel or the at least in the traffic closures. The detour to get home was very lengthy. I remember seeing photos of the burned out vehicles in newspapers and on local newscasts the next few days. Commuting through the tunnel was a nightmare with the traffic reversal system to begin with.
I was 12 and I lived in Berkeley. I remember seeing the bus after that accident, split by crashing into a pillar. I still sometimes go through the bore where it happened and I get anxious.
thank you for bringing these things to light which many people today have never heard of. this was awful. to be honest, I had forgotten about it as I was a senior in high school.
I was just learning how to drive when this happened, and boy suddenly my dad's favorite route for driver training changed dramatically. Before the fire he was keen to make sure I had lots of "freeway speed tunnel practice," but afterward he "randomly and for no particular reason" decided it would be better for me to spend more time learning to navigate open levee roads with loads of bascule bridges and visibility-destroying dips and hills. He thought I didn't know about the fire and didn't want me to see the aftermath because he was worried I'd end up with...how to put this...neurotic driving habits in tunnels? Meanwhile I'd of course seen it on the news and WAS freaked out about it for a while, so I was perfectly happy to head off into the delta in our absolutely massive tank of a 1970-something station wagon and try not to get us killed on those narrow, winding, "everybody doing 80 on curves flagged as 25-or-less, keep up or get wrecked" levee roads 😅
Shortly after the tunnel reopened, we passed through it from the upper port, just outside the entrance was a large pile of burned stuff, don't know what it was. We passed through and found it very creepy because the inside was just black from the fire. I don't live in the area, but am glad for the restrictions of certain vehicles from the tunnel to make it safer.
Well ,that's part of the story .. I was there that Night .. We drove thru the tunnel going to Oakland 15 minutes before the Honda wrecked . Close shave with disaster . On our way home from the concert , we saw the smoke and the whole area was blocked off . Using the old road we made to the other side . We spoke to an Officer there who told us what happened . We coulda been toast ! Sheer Luck ,ya know ? >>>>>> J D
I remember when this happened... I was living in San Ramon as an 11 year old whose brother had Leukemia and went to hospital in Oakland so we traveled through these tunnels quite often. I remember the construction had the traffic messed up for a long time.
God, as if I didn’t hate driving through the Caldecott Tunnel enough already… I avoid the 24 whenever I can, because this is a long, claustrophobic feeling tunnel and it is usually pretty busy with a lot of traffic. This sounds absolutely gruesome. I really liked the rusty Pinto graphic though, great video.
What would constitute a 10 on your scale? I've watched your videos for years, and I dont think I've ever seen a scale of 10. Love your work. Keep it up.
I used to drive this route every day to A&P school. Had no idea this event occurred, but I always thought that it was a miracle I never encountered a wreck.
Wow, I grew up in the bay area, and I think I heard vaguely over the years about a fire that happened there, but never really thought about it or cared to learn about it. I was surprised to see the Caldecott tunnel mentioned. Interesting! Sad it happened at all, though
Sad but interesting spot of “chains per inch” on the old drawings - I remember my old maths teacher drumming weird imperial units into us in the 90s (yeah) and a chain happened to be 1 cricket pitch length or 22 yards 😮
I went through the same tunnel that night, a couple of hours before the event on the way to the city. On the way home the tunnels were closed and we had to go over Fish Ranch Rd. We could still see the smoke pouring out.
The Caldecott Tunnels are still terrifying. As a Bay Area native, I do everything I can to avoid them, and when I have to drive them, I do so with lead space in front of me and at 5-10mph under the limit. I also breathe a sigh of relief every time that I exit the tunnels.
My good friends mother was the woman who was killed trying to make the emergency call. Her son, an off-duty cop, went to the entrance and was credited with stopping many more people from entering. A horrible event that I remember all too well as I read my friend's mother's name in the newspaper the next day.
Thank God BART existed as an alternative to this route. It would prove it's worth as an alternative again 7 years later when the Loma Prieta Earthquake damaged the Bay Bridge. I commute through the Caldecot Tunnel to get to work sometimes, and one thing I sometimes notice in the summer is that on the Walnut Creek side the sky can be bright and warm, but on the Oakland side, cloudy and cold. Its strange how much of a difference there is.
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i just had a idea for an april fools video: a video that talks about the films of uwe boll as disasters.
The end of the video seams to have a retake
Have there been a video with a 10 on disaster scale? End of the world?
Gonna come with a Recommendation for a Future Video on an intresting and somewhat forgotten disaster.
namely The Sandö Bridge Disaster from 1939 aka Swedens worst construction Disaster with 18 lives lost when the almost complete Bridge Bow collapsed into the Ångerman River.
The Bridge would more or less look the same as the one they built a few years after the disaster.
The disaster also likely was the reason Why Almö bridge was built with Twin Metal bows instead of a concrete one, Together with the fact that most of the Concrete availible was used in an even bigger structure just a few KM's away Namely the Stenungsund Oil Powerplan which still to this day is the biggest powerplant built into a mountain in the world and that is without naming all the sexret bunkers and mountain rooms which was built into it incase USSR Decided to Nuke Sweden and Stenungsund so they made armored mountain rooms that can easily fit Lund Cathedral.
One big reason why the Sandö Disaster was quickly forgotten was that it happened 31 august 1939, Germany invaded Poland 1 day later.
PD, hope you see this. The bus in the video @9:20 is NOT a school bus. It's an AC Transit (public transit) bus. If this picture is from the accident, then your narration is incorrect. It looks like when the bus rolled driver-less out of the tunnel, it came against rest on the last pillar support for the Control Center access road. (Behind the bus in the picture is where the exit for #4 bore is now).
One thing you forgot to mention about this particular tunnel fire. The temperatures from the fire were so high that it affected future safety designs of nuclear transports where nuclear cargo had to be able to withstand similar temperatures for hours on end. So something good did come out of this.
As someone who is interested in that sector, that's incredibly interesting!
@@antlerman7644that’s why we’re watching this channel 👍
That is what standards are partly made of: lessons learned from accidents. The other part comes from reflecting on what could happen. But real life goes often further than what we thought was possible.
Yea
@@HansLasser nobody learns anything meaningful from thinking about what ifs.
Great video. Just wanted to add as a PSA:
If your vehicle starts making a horrible noise when you go into a tunnel, no it isn't. It's been making that noise for miles and you're only now hearing it reflect off the walls. You can get it thru the tunnel and pull over after you exit.
It should be illegal for cars to make that ridiculous squealing sound (usually a belt lube issue)
@@CantHandleThisCanYa Belt pinch, pulley bearing wearing out, too much or too little tension. Generally the timing and serpentine belts on most modern cars are not lubricated, as this defeats the purpose of a belt
@@kanedakrsaI thought it's the teeth on those belts that act almost like an inverted chain and spindle, making lube a good thing since it's not purely friction driven? wouldnt you want lube so the non force transferring parts? also "teeth"/"studs", whatever you want to call them, like lil gear teeth pointing inward instead of out on a belt. I could just be an idiot though. Plz correct me if I'm wrong!
Timing belts have teeth, and don't slip.@@kanedakrsa
@@billganahl7151but IIRC, serpentine belts do not.
My mom grew up in this area. She remembers going through the tunnel shortly after it reopened. You could feel the road get bumpy every time you passed over a place where there had once been a melted car. It’s pretty chilling to this day when you pass the “no hazardous materials” sign right before you enter the tunnel.
Was about to say the same thing about the no HAZMAT sign - drove through the tunnel a few times and every time I saw the sign it reminded me of what a mess it could be.
There is still an uneven and rapidly undulating patch in that tunnel.
@@carguybikeguy I travel through it daily and I noticed that patch I didn't realize it was from that
My dad used this tunnel on his way home from work every night fir years. He had just gone through the tunnel about 30 minutes before this accident. Super scary. I still don't like driving through these tunnels.
@@carguybikeguy yup, I always use the new bore specifically because of that bump.
I grew up in Walnut Creek, where SR 24 intersects I 680 a few miles down from the tunnels. Can't tell you how many times I've been through the tunnels, as a kid, a car driver, and truck driver. The origional twin bores are pretty ragged. But the "new" fourth bore is luxurious. Full shoulders on both sides, digital signs, blowers at the top, exellent lighting. All mod cons.
I grew up in Danville and I would agree with all of the above. Was in junior high when this crash happened. Through those tunnels so many times
as someone from oakland, idk if i’ll ever feel safe driving through there again😅
I'm from LaMorinda, so I'm right at the east end of the tunnel, and my sister lives in Castro Valley, so visiting her means going through the tunnel (I have no interest in going through Canyon). The use bore 4 and bore 1. And man do people want you to speed through those narrow original bores!
@@savagegardenroxI just want to point out that LaMorinda is a portmanteau of the names of the 3 towns next to each other, Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda for those that don't know. Orinda is where the tunnel exits on the east, Lafayette is farther down the highway but next to Orinda, and Moraga is not quite south of Lafayette and Orinda but it has no freeway access.
I still live in Walnut Creek, off of Olympic Blvd, in the house that my husband's grandparents built in the early 1930's. I commute through the tunnel into SF daily. My husband also worked on the new tunnel.
If you drive through a tunnel regularly, this is your reminder to familiarise yourself with its safety systems and evacuation procedures. They'll probably have all that information on a website, but just taking conscious note of the exits, phones, signage, etc., on your next drive through is a start.
Yes!!! I used to drive thru the Caldecott 4 times a day as a school bus driver. The emergency phones number 1-13 from west to east. The doors to the escape tunnels were close to the entrance & exit of the tunnels but if something happened, you could determine from the number on the emergency phone which direction was closest to fresh air.
People today don’t pay much attention to details outside of the phones in their hands. I’m going to start photographing all of the drivers who pass me daily whilst on a phone, a think people would be really unpleasantly shocked. I’d estimate 70% of cars speeding by me at 75mph+ are driven by drivers who are texting and driving. It’s sad truly that we haven’t yet broken through to people about how dangerous this is. Also, it’s EVERYBODY. Not one particular age group, sex, religion, color, tax bracket etc!
People today don’t pay much attention to details outside of the phones in their hands. I’m going to start photographing all of the drivers who pass me daily whilst on a phone, a think people would be really unpleasantly shocked. I’d estimate 70% of cars speeding by me at 75mph+ are driven by drivers who are texting and driving. It’s sad truly that we haven’t yet broken through to people about how dangerous this is. Also, it’s EVERYBODY. Not one particular age group, sex, religion, color, tax bracket etc!
You have no idea how much relief i had when you said "EMPTY School Bus".
Me too, I actually said out loud "thank F for that!"
I didn't register empty at first and my heart sank. still, you can't help but to think about the children who were on that route, probably saw him everyday on their way to school and to some extent had a relationship with him.
must've created a lot of "what if" and regret
Same! I was a school bus driver for 25 years!
To the best of my knowledge (I was regularly back and forth on that route in 1982), it was a deadheading Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit), not a school bus. It's not important, but if you look at the photos of the wreck at the west end, you can see the A/C logo on its side.
@ yes, Your right
i first heard this story about 15 years ago from a man uniquely qualified to tell it. He was the first California Highway Patrolman on scene after the accident. As such, He was the lead investigator for the CHP on the case. In the court case that followed, He spent 3 straight weeks testifying on the witness stand!!! Can you imagine the stress?! It sent Him into an early retirement!
That poor man.
I was a witness to a hit and run around 25 years ago, and later, I was the IT person who discovered illegal child SA material on another employee’s office computer. Both of these cases went to court and I had to testify. I was nervous as hell, jittery and anxious, and I wasn’t even the person who was in trouble!
The defendant’s lawyers were tenacious and aggressive, and I was not used to that, so it rattled me a bit. Both of the cases I was part of were in court less than a day each. I think if they had gone on much longer, I would have needed therapy to cope with how freaked out the defence lawyers’ aggression made me. I can’t imagine having to testify for that awful length of time! Yikes!
@@ChaosMagnet Why would anyone put that on an office computer? Absolutely nuts.
@bobstevenson3130 you'd be surprised. We served a search warrant on a city hall computer for child porn. The guy was coming in after hours to access it.
@@ChaosMagnetas long as you didn’t tell the cops any lies going on the stand and repeating it shouldn’t be a problem
This is my neck of the woods! As kids, my dad used to tell us this story every time we went through the tunnel. It used to terrify me going through it. Gotta love dad stories
Same here I live in Rockridge and was there as a kid but I was born one year after
Thank you John for bringing us an event which wasn't caused by the world's most hireable Safety Director. Great work! (6:24) The Safety Director made a guest appearance.
Oh my gosh, I had a listen to it three times - he was saying Alameda. That way he pronounced it I didn’t even recognize the word and I used to live in the area.
Ah so this is like people pronouncing MA places without being from there? 😅
@Transberrylemonaid Or like my relatives from New Jersey talking about Jamacha Boulevard in San Diego County.
British people cannot pronounce words properly. It's ridiculous.
Or anyone pronouncing towns from Wisconsin/Minnesota
But I never would’ve considered the word Alameda, nearly as difficult as some of the place names in Massachusetts, Wisconsin or Minnesota. Those include truly unusual words that are approximations of Native American place names. Alameda is a fairly common word, I think it’s a Spanish word referring to poplar trees. At least I thought it was common enough that it should be easy to pronounce. Certainly not nearly as difficult as Oconomowoc.
Wow you did this one. I live a couple cities south of the tunnel. To this day hazardous materials are banned from passing through the Caldecott. I still hate going through there as the disaster is still etched in my memory and the older bores are too narrow IMO. The forth bore built in 2013 isn’t bad at all. Thanks for the video!
CARS were much narrower in those days. Mostly because PEOPLE were much narrower! Have a look in a classic car and you can see how narrow the seats were. I googled and a modern SUV is at least a foot wider than a 1930s Ford.
@@julierobinson3633 Cars nowadays are certainly wider than in the 30s, but I think we are still far behind the land yachts and gigantic station wagons of the 1970s
If you haven't covered it yet, the Macarthur Maze fire, collapse,and everything around that would make for a very interesting dieo
Yes
Caltrans offered the contractor big bucks to speed up the rebuilding of that! It was done in record time (for a LOT of money)
Also, the truck that went over the edge of the Bay Bridge when they were refitting it for earthquakes around 2008-2013
Another channel just covered the Sun Valley Mall airplane crash. It's weird suddenly seeing all these videos about stuff that happened in the Bay Area when I was a kid there. Felt like everyone had forgotten about them. Nice to see them remembered. The only thing I'd add is that I'm pretty sure it was an AC Transit bus (a public transport system from the area) not, thankfully, a school bus. But I could be wrong. Anyway, thanks for another interesting video!
I just checked some images from the fire. You’re right, it was an AC Transit bus.
AC transit bus. When it exited the tunnel, it hit the support pillar and split down the middle. traffic was horrible until the tunnel was put back into service. Witnesses said that the ceramic ceiling tiles broke from the heat and rained down making clinking sounds. What a mess.
@@kimmer6 I remember when we'd drive though the tunnel after it was always clear were the repairs were. It's been a long, long time since I've been though that tunnel since I haven't lived in the area since the late 90s so I don't know if it's still the case.
@@SeventhSwell It's much improved now.
Yeah, it would have been odd for a school bus to be going through the Caldecott Tunnel at midnight, but an AC Transit bus would have possibly been making a scheduled run between east of the Berkeley Hills and Oakland or more likely just be headed back to the bus yard in Emeryville (next to Oakland) for the night.
there are so many people who don’t know exactly what happened in the Caldecott, i’m glad you put this out
That explains why there is a "no hazardous goods" prohibition on the Lowry tunnel off Interstate 94 in Minneapolis. It's a relatively short tunnel, but under no circumstances can big fuel tanker trucks etc use it.
Yup, they have to exit and go over the top of the tunnel on surface streets -- or take a different freeway altogether.
(The Lowry Hill Tunnel was built to take I-94 under a major intersection where two major streets -- Hennepin Ave and Lyndale Ave -- cross at a narrow angle to each other.)
And yah, as a kid I always noticed the "lane closed" signals over every lane in thr Lowry tunnel. The tunnel curves, so they're kinda necessary if someone crashes or stalls in there.
@8:40: I used to have a motorcycle like the one in that truck, except mine wasn't flame-broiled. Thanks for the weekly dose of Difficult, John!
I live in Oakland Hills and remember this horrible tragedy very well. Another tragedy hit in that same area near the tunnel in 1992, an Oakland Hills Firestorm that destroyed 3500 homes,
killed and injured number of people.
I remember them both and the fire starting in Orinda early that morning
@@KentuckyIrishsame.
As a fuel tanker driver, this makes my skin crawl. Fortunately, my route doesn't have any tunnels.
Driving a bomb around.......
I tend to avoid being near a tanker truck when I am on the road. I've driven commercial trucks as well as buses and vans with passengers. I made it a habit to leave as much room as practical between me and all other vehicles, and as much room as possible between me, my passengers and tanker trucks.
Especially while approaching or in a tunnel.
If I'm on the open highway I will often follow tanker trucks, I figure the driver's got to be pretty sane and cautious so they're not likely to lead me into a dangerous situation. I do give them lots of distance.
@tncorgi92
Its called, Predatory Attitude.
I cannot think of a better way to kick off my weekend than with a brand new Plainly Difficult! You are a gentleman and a scholar! Cheers Mate and thank you again for all you do!
Accent reveals lower class origins (not "gentleman" class) and mangled grammar indicates lack of education.
I don't know about over there but here in Australia, all tunnels have a broadband radio transmitter that covers the entire AM and FM bands. Yoare asked "via signage) to turn your radio on when entering and they can transmit warnings and evacuation orders over the radio. Every now and again when driving through you will hear the alert tone followed by a message about a breakdown, water on the road or the like come over the radio as well as being displayed on one of the several VMS boards hanging from the roof. And, of course, the entire length is under CCTV coverage from the control room.
We have several tunnels several kilometres long around me and those all have first-response vehicles ready to go in a layaway at the mouth as well as dedicated fire mains with a backup main in the centre service tunnel. There are publically accessible hose reels every 100 metres located beside the doors for the emergency exits to the service tunnel. The road surface is concrete because asphalt burns. I honestly don't think they could be any safer.
It seems y'all place a higher value on public safety than we do. Most folks here would rather pay less taxes and get a cheaper cost instead.
@marvindebot3264
We have a system of low powered AM transmitters (IIRC, 1610 khz) for road warnings and such.
We also had an experimental system where regular AM/FM broadcast stations would transmit emergency information along with their normal programming. This could be received on a compatible radio. I believe that there was some limited implementation for testing, but I don't know if it went beyond that.
I don't know why, but they've never caught on with the public.
@@mikesmith-po8nd They only use it during unusual circumstances like two-way traffic, but the tunnel I go through most often in the US does have the radio capability.
This accident was 40 years ago. Probably most Aussie tunnels were the same, they were in the UK.
I’ve noticed Australia takes fire safety really seriously. Sensible considering the climate and environment.
Living here in New England I just have to say I love the little touch of what your weather is like at the time of recording. It makes the world a little smaller.
Awesome! I was hoping to finally see something about this disaster in the (usually boring) town I grew up in. I was born in Orinda right after this happened and my dad was stuck in the traffic jam right outside the tunnel bore as it as it was happening. Heard many a story about it as a kid going through. I got the point when he said " Loaded AC Transit bus versus loaded gasoline tanker. That's why tankers aren't allowed in it during the day. The fire was so hot, it melted the ceramic tiles that lined the bore and they could only identify the passengers by their teeth." 'Nuff said.
Congrats on 1 million subs!
I think you’re one of the best creators, thank you for your hard work!!
Concise, informative, clear, and engaging, despite the horrifying reality. As an SF Bay Area commuter I've always wondered about this disaster. Thank you again, John.
I lived in the area when this happened. The ceiling and walls were originally covered in sickly green tiles. The ceiling tiles had a habit of falling off on occasion pre tunnel fire. There was a beer truck that got consumed in the fire as well. The fire was so hot that the aluminum beer cans in the truck melted after the fire breached the truck box. The tunnel was retiled after the fire but not the ceiling. The ceiling was eventually covered with large panels that were mechanically attached. Still sickly green.
As somebody that grew up here I remember those green tiles you just brought me back memories as a kid
Is this why a lot of tunnels/bridges I have seen have a sign that says if you have a crash in the tunnel and the cars can still drive, you drive them out of the tunnel/off the bridge onto the shoulder of the road beyond and then inspect them?
I thought it was to prevent traffic jams (we don't have many tunnels or real bridges here, just overpasses and underpasses) but now i suspect it is to prevent disasters.
It is also incase whatever malfunction is presenting a fire risk. It is best to get out of the tunnel before the fire takes hold.
I grew up right next to this tunnel and had always wondered what had happened. Thank you for this video and the funny fact that one of my favorite channels made a video exactly about it.
Nothing like a hot cup of coffee and a nice tunnel fire to wake up with on a Saturday morning, thanks, John.
3:32, Pinto(s) in the tunnel, classic.
Sets the mood for the day, doesn’t it?
I _love_ that you have the NTSB looking so ragged and exhausted! Like, they are *SO DONE* with this nonsense!
A significant amount of fault still lies with the drunk driver.
Never drink and drive, folks.
Three non-design errors appear at fault:
1. The drunk driver crashing and blocking the passing lane.
2. The truck driving in the passing lane.
3. The bus following the truck too closely to stop.
Even if the first error wasn't caused by a drunk driver - say a mechanical failure - the same amount of blame would lie upon errors 2 and 3.
This is to say nothing of the design failures of the tunnel (as described in the video) not providing enough tolerance for the inevitable human error with each vehicle having its own driver.
@@catipto 2. Is even worse. You should always drive at a speed, that you can stop for any obstacle. If you can't see behind a curve or corner, you should slow down enough to be able to stop for an obstacle that is just out of sight.
Even a simple breakdown could have caused this incident. The initial crash did not cause any injury.
But everyone is giving her the Kitty-Kat pass.
Dam $imps.
I'm fairly certain that the point was that there is no reason that anyone should have died, that isn't on the drunk driver. The drunk driver didn't cause there to be inadequate monitoring and warning systems that could (and would) have prevented more people entering the tunnel after the crash, they aren't the reason that there weren't more warning systems in the tunnel that could have notified people already in the tunnel to evacuate sooner.
Do you know why air travel is the safest form of travel? It's because investigators refuse to accept human error as the cause, even if it is part of the cause.
A great example of this was an almost crash (that's the other thing, they investigate close calls as well) where a pilot had brought a camera into the cockpit and carelessly set it down where it was adjusting some of the controls, unbeknownst to the crew. They could have written it off as pilot error and went on their way, but instead they asked the questions like:
Was the pilot doing anything that violated airline policy? If not, was there something as simple as a checklist item that could be added to make sure pilots are verifying that nothing they've brought into the cockpit is obstructing the operation of the aircraft.
Was there some way that the aircraft could have recognized that it was receiving unexpected inputs? If it could, how could it better warn the pilot about unexpected inputs so that the pilot is made aware of anything unusual? Would such a warning help more often than it hindered?
That's how you make the world safer, you never stop at, "well, they were drunk, and the person behind them was following too closely/quickly, that explains it." You follow up and say, what can we do so that next time someone is drunk and the person behind them is following too closely and too quickly, not as many people die?
I lived in Oakland when the fire happened. There were a few times I HAD to drive thru that tunnel - even tho they'd fixed it, you could still see some smoke damaged tiles on the walls. Creepy as hell.
Yup lived there when it happened. The tunnel got jacked up pretty good. It's a restricted route for tankers now. no haz allowed
There are still some people who refuse to drive through the Caldecott Tunnel even after over 40 years of safety upgrades and new bores.
The biggest problem now is that the long curve hides accidents at the midpoint. However, there are tons of fans, ducts, extinguishers etc to prevent this from happening again. There are also multiple evacuation routes for pedestrians in the tunnel.
A lot of those doors in bores 1-3 don't even open or are locked from the inside, and they keep the lights off in those access rooms so it would just be pitch black if you got inside. The whole place was in shambles when I was doing some work there 5 years ago. Fortunately a lot of the mechanical and electrical has been repaired, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere near there in a disaster
I live in San Francisco and I remember this. I'm in my 60's now, but this was a strange event. The fire melted the concrete in that tunnel. When the tanker truck exploded it acted like a cannon and shot out several vehicles and some human remains. The Caldecott Tunnel(s) still exists and work just fine. It's us that are the problem.
The "cannon" thing never happened. I'm also in my mid 60s and lived nearby.
@@AirDOGGe I drove through the tunnel every day for years when I was a driver for a company in Fairfield. The bus was ejected although cannon was never used in any story I heard. It was an effect of the tanker exploding and destroying thousands of tiles that were on the walls and ceiling. The raod did have irregular areas where cars or trucks had been as the heat from the tanker blast melted a good portion of the cement. The bodies of the dead were burned but since they had already sucummed to the tosic smoke it was not made a big deal of. I remember driving through it days after it was reopened and after that made every attempt to not drive that way if possible again.
@@paulmcfadden5247 The bus was not ejected. It rolled on under it's own power after colliding and then ran into a concrete pillar just outside of the tunnel. That is documented.
I like how you included a Ford Pinto. 😂
I love when John reuses material from his previous videos haha there's also the limo without brakes
@@LucasOliveira-tt2ll The combination of the two was classic PD.
I immediately noticed that thing haha
Came here to say this. 😂😂😂
Hey, we can't have a disaster without a Pinto.....
In the Netherlands the rules for tunnels are now so strict that even in short ones, where you can almost see the exit when entering, they close down if a light or camera becomes inoperable... No cameras in a tunnel is unthinkable.
it was the 1980s, there was generally just almost no cameras anywhere at that time. I suspect it was cost and just the tech of the era, where as today they can have very compact cameras everywhere and multiple feeds on single screens.
Theres a tunnel just north of LA that back in the 90's, i believe, that had a wreck and torched people. Im an OTR truck driver and i remember seeing the scorch marks at the exit of the tunnel that stayed around for years.
You should do a video about the Brattli tunnel fire in Norway:
A truck with 27 tons of cheese products (Brunost, basically boiled down and caramelized whey) autoignited inside the tunnel and burned for four days.
The tunnel was kinda busted after that...
No deaths tho, so it might make for a short video without the Grimdark.
Imagine the smell from that fire
I live just on the east side of the Caldecott tunnel and have to drive through it to visit my sister or my grandmother and to work shifts as a locum vet tech.
Driving through Redwood Canyon is terrifying and avoiding that route is essential for my mental health.
There are now 4 bores for the tunnel, and tankers are permitted in NONE of them. The fourth bore is the only one to have a breakdown lane, as well.
After my career as a mainframe computer operator for a very large San Francisco-based oil company ended due to downsizing in 1992, I obtained a commercial driver license, and drove for companies based in the SF Bay area. Three years into my new profession, I began to drive tanker trucks. Initially, I hauled sulphuric acid, and a few years later, I began to haul gasoline. During my gasoline hauling years, I met drivers who were hauling gasoline at the time of the Caldecott Tunnel disaster and the earthquake that had occurred in 1989, while the World Series was being played in San Francisco. When you haul hazmat, you must focus only on your immediate task in the moment. Dwelling on "what COULD happen", might create an interruption in your ability to concentrate, and thus cause the very thing you were dreading. Be safe out there!
I think my anxiety partially draws me to your videos. It's good to know what the points of failure were for disasters so I can try to gauge how safe I am in a tunnel, a tall building, a convention center etc. I usually look at how something is constructed and appreciate that many of its features were put in after learning from past mistakes. Thanks for your videos and the awareness and peace of mind they have given me.
Have you seen any that are obviously going to fail on here? Because most the time the problem is hidden...
@@WezzleG I think that you can tell when something is shoddily constructed. Seeing cracks or uneven floors is a bad sign for example. On the other hand, you can tell if something was extremely engineered: the Hoover dam and att stadium for example. Sure, there are the ones you can't tell. That's why I'm always a little anxious when I go anywhere and where the videos help in knowing where the likely point of failure is. Also being able to tell if there is enough room in an area to escape, or knowing that if you hear creaking and moaning it's also a good sign to leave
@@danielle3064 true, but unless you're visiting somewhere with really bad regulations like China, most of these incidents (in these vids) have some kind of human error triggering the disaster
@@danielle3064 The design of the tunnel in this video reminded me of the tunnel under the Detroit river, connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit. That thing's always made me nervous, (as driving under a river probably should), and I've often wondered how many times disaster's been narrowly averted in there...
l knew of the disaster when l moved to the Bay Area 30 years ago and am always reminded of it when passing the signage about the limited hours. Thanks for providing a thorough telling of the story.
i grew up in walnut creek and on that night my best friend and i were staying up late being kids. his dad was on his way home from the city, san francisco, and i remember the breaking news. we had to wait for so long to hear from his dad. he had not got to the tunnel yet but was driving up when it happened. he said it was a fire ball that came out and everything in the tunnel was gone. some had almost no remains. wow what a flashback. great job on this, my thoughts go out to the lost.❤
@plainlydifficult the bus involved wasn't a school bus. It was an AC Transit bus... Public transit bus.
"AC" in this case meaning "Alameda County," where "Alameda is pronounced "al - ah - MEED - ah"
@@kastandlee You got the pronunciation right. But, "AC" stood for Alameda - Contra Costa. There weren't enough riders to keep the Contra Costa routes going. It would be completely different today.
@@vpolite1 Ah, yes, of course. It's been too long since I moved out of the Bay Area. I lived in Alameda county for around ten years before moving to northern Nevada in 2011.
@vpolite1 AC transit serves routes in western Contra Costa county: Richmond and El Cerito. These cities are the northern extension of the Oakland, Berkeley, etc urban area.
@edwardblair4096 They have a few routes that service those area. But, it is not their focus. All the transit districts bleed into their neighboring districts. AC Transit used to serve more of Contra Costa when it was initially setup. But, there weren't that many people. Now, 3 different agencies serve the county. Combining them would make more sense.
Another excellent video John. Yes, vehicles carrying hazardous materials weren't specifically prohibited from using the tunnel at the time. However, Federal regulations did, and still do, require companies that routinely transport hazmat shipments to develop routes that avoid tunnels unless, based on overall safety considerations, there is no practical alternate route. In their review of the accident, the NTSB determined the oil company's analysis resulting in the decision to allow their tankers to use the Caldecott Tunnel instead of alternate routes was based principally on convenience instead of potential risks associated with the tunnel routing (one more for the bingo card?).
You should cover the more devastating Mont Blanc tunnel fire that happened 17 years later.
That would be a great video
Already has
@@jonparrott3332Has he? I can’t find one from Plainly Difficult. Are you thinking of Fascinating Horror?
@@jonparrott3332I don’t think so, Dark Records has covered it, but Plainly Difficult hasn’t yet.
Besides the Mont Blanc tunnel disaster, they're several others like this. The Gottard road tunnel in Switzerland had 11 motorists killed after 2 semi trucks collided head on and caught fire. In the Salang tunnel near the Afghanistan/Russia border, a Soviet military convoy consisting of armored trucks and equipment collided with a civilian fuel tanker truck. In the confusing, military soldiers assumed it was an attack and sealed both entrances to the tunnel, leaving under 1000 people dead.
I lived in Marin at the time and remember this trade by like it was yesterday. Thanks for posting.
CoCo County has a few notable disasters associated with it if you're interested in covering more; Port Chicago explosion and the Sunvalley Mall plane crash come to mind off the top of my head.
Edit: another great video. Happy holidays from a currently rainy corner of CoCo County
Also the Yuba City bus crash near 680 and the Benicia bridge in 1976 (deadliest school bus 28 students) and the Concord Water slide disaster in 1997.
I lived in San Francisco when this happened and now my dad lives on that mountain Ridge where the tunnel goes through maybe 5 miles away. I was a motorcycle courier in the Bay Area and I drove through that tunnel many times after this when they actually stopped tankers from driving through it. That was a crazy crazy thing that I peripherally was involved in good video.
I remember this horrific tragedy when it happened way back in April of 1982 it was a truly shocking and gruesome event fire,death,destruction and carnage in the tunnel!
Whenever reading warning signs and labels, i often wonder what sort of disaster must have created a need for it. Thanks for sharing your time and efforts on figuring one more road sign out.
Watched this video last night. Woke up this morning and needed to drive from sf to the east bay and a car fire inside the tunnel shut down both of the eastbound bores for most of the day. The alternate route made and added time made me appreciate this tunnel even more.
I remain astounded by the ability of an UK 'reporter' to give accurate reviews of US history.
I thank you, should I ever visit the UIK I shall buy you all the thick, yeasty brown liquid you call beer that I can afford.
I don't have a fear of tunnels or bridges. However, I have always been uncomfortable when entering these tunnels. I drove trucks through there many times and never felt safe. Just too narrow. I remember that horrible crash. It was a sad day in the Bay Area.
The newer tunnel is not so bad though
The bus is a public (AC Transit) bus, not a school bus. I live near there & I remember that happening. Thank you for covering this Plainly Difficult incident in my local area.
Wow, I dont think I've ever been this early! Love your videos John
There's a third tunnel added. It's huge. The other two are claustrophobic compared to the new one. I drove through those tunnels for years. Didn't know about this event, thanks for putting it out there.
For the algorithm! Thanks as always John.
An aspect that you may not have known was a number of autos entered the tunnel and seeing the collision before the ignition all reversed and exited from the east end of the tunnel thereby avoiding becoming casualties the disaster.
A fourth bore of modern design was added at a later date.
Thank you for this explanation of the accident
John,
Thank you for posting this important hiatorical feature. I was working in the Bay Area at that time in 1982, such that I'm well aware of this unfortunate accident. I assure everyone present that John's account is most accurate. The following is a feature not well understood about the Caldecotr Tunnel fire.
While working in the warehouse of a ceramic tile warehouse back in April 1982, I answered the phone one day to someone wanting an estimate on an incredibly large supply of tile that they might want to purchase For the sake of privacy I leave out the name of the tile distributor that I worked for
Normally, tile in America is sold by the square foot. We're not on the metric system. This fellow, however, asked for the price of and availability of exactly,
'Eleven thousand square METERS of tile.
I almost shit myself, but knew instantaneously that this man's request was something that the company's ownership really needed to address. I was out of my league here and knew it. I did jot down the number of the merchandise. It was a standard 4 & 1/4 x 4 &1/4 inch ceramic tile in almond color.
So I called the boss on the intercom after placing the prospective client on hold. However, I did ask for a job name first before putting the man on hold. He replied,
"Caldecott Tunnel Job"
Oh my God that's an awfully large order. However once I referred the prospective client to the boss, it was immediately out of my hands.
It wasnt til after quiting that job that I discovered that my bbosses actually did sell that job to the tunnel contractor.
9 x 11, 000 = 99,000.
The manufacture probably made roughly 40 grand and my bosses made a cool $99,000
Everyone was happy. Today, of the three tunnels, there is only one with tile on the walls. That is of the three going through the Berkeley hills and called the Caldecott,
Very interesting. I'm not sure why they would ever have allowed certain hazmat to be transported through the tunnels. I've been going through the tunnels on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, since the late 50's and I don't believe that many types of hazmat has ever allowed in them. One way or another, lessons are learned the hard way.
It was a municipal bus. AC Transit serves Alameda County.
I think you said it was a school bus.
AC transit her serves two counties. the A stands for Alameda county and the C stands for Contra Costa county.
Drove through that bore this morning. It was an AC Transit bus.
Have you done a video on the Oakland Hills Firestorm in 1991? Multiple factors contributed to the loss of life and property. Part of the fire was around the Caldecott Tunnel. Ashes fell in the yard of my family home in San Francisco.
Yup, I somehow remember that being on a Sunday in 1991, because I was watching the 49ers live on my tv, and I wondered what is all that black cloud of smoke coming over the top of candlestick park. Then we all found out on the evening news!!! 👍
I grew up in the Bay Area and this is just one of several horrible tragedies that I can recall. The Oakland Hills fire. The Loma Prieta earthquake. The plane crashing into the Sunvalley mall.
While I live 10 miles from the tunnel, I was stationed at Holoman AFB in New Mexico at the time of the disaster.
The era-correct cars are an excellent touch! I had family that lived nearby as a kid and grew up going through the tunnel a few times a year and it always creeped me out after hearing the story
The Caldecott tunnel was part on my daily commute from 1980 to 2021. I remember hitting traffic that morning due to the closure of the bore and when I finally emerged on the west side I was astonished to see a metro bus smashed into a support pylon and split open like a banana peel. I had no idea what had happened since this was before the internet or the 24 hour a day news phenomenon.
I was living in Pleasant Hill, CA in April 1982 and commuted to work through the tunnel to work in Emeryville, CA. I decided to work later than usual that day (April 7). If I had left earlier I may have been caught in the tunnel or the at least in the traffic closures. The detour to get home was very lengthy. I remember seeing photos of the burned out vehicles in newspapers and on local newscasts the next few days.
Commuting through the tunnel was a nightmare with the traffic reversal system to begin with.
I was 12 and I lived in Berkeley. I remember seeing the bus after that accident, split by crashing into a pillar. I still sometimes go through the bore where it happened and I get anxious.
thank you for bringing these things to light which many people today have never heard of. this was awful. to be honest, I had forgotten about it as I was a senior in high school.
I was just learning how to drive when this happened, and boy suddenly my dad's favorite route for driver training changed dramatically. Before the fire he was keen to make sure I had lots of "freeway speed tunnel practice," but afterward he "randomly and for no particular reason" decided it would be better for me to spend more time learning to navigate open levee roads with loads of bascule bridges and visibility-destroying dips and hills. He thought I didn't know about the fire and didn't want me to see the aftermath because he was worried I'd end up with...how to put this...neurotic driving habits in tunnels? Meanwhile I'd of course seen it on the news and WAS freaked out about it for a while, so I was perfectly happy to head off into the delta in our absolutely massive tank of a 1970-something station wagon and try not to get us killed on those narrow, winding, "everybody doing 80 on curves flagged as 25-or-less, keep up or get wrecked" levee roads 😅
Shortly after the tunnel reopened, we passed through it from the upper port, just outside the entrance was a large pile of burned stuff, don't know what it was. We passed through and found it very creepy because the inside was just black from the fire. I don't live in the area, but am glad for the restrictions of certain vehicles from the tunnel to make it safer.
I drive through this tunnel every single day! Really looking forward to this explanation
Well ,that's part of the story .. I was there that Night .. We drove thru the tunnel going to Oakland 15 minutes before the Honda wrecked . Close shave with disaster . On our way home from the concert , we saw the smoke and the whole area was blocked off . Using the old road we made to the other side . We spoke to an Officer there who told us what happened . We coulda been toast ! Sheer Luck ,ya know ? >>>>>> J D
I remember when this happened...
I was living in San Ramon as an 11 year old whose brother had Leukemia and went to hospital in Oakland so we traveled through these tunnels quite often. I remember the construction had the traffic messed up for a long time.
God, as if I didn’t hate driving through the Caldecott Tunnel enough already… I avoid the 24 whenever I can, because this is a long, claustrophobic feeling tunnel and it is usually pretty busy with a lot of traffic. This sounds absolutely gruesome. I really liked the rusty Pinto graphic though, great video.
Great job on the video. I remember when that happened when I was in high school. growing up in the East Bay.
What would constitute a 10 on your scale? I've watched your videos for years, and I dont think I've ever seen a scale of 10. Love your work. Keep it up.
Dang, NTSB looked really perturbed this time
There was also a tunnel fire in Victoria in the Burnley Tunnel Australia in 2007 which killed 3 people.
I used to drive this route every day to A&P school. Had no idea this event occurred, but I always thought that it was a miracle I never encountered a wreck.
Wow, I grew up in the bay area, and I think I heard vaguely over the years about a fire that happened there, but never really thought about it or cared to learn about it. I was surprised to see the Caldecott tunnel mentioned. Interesting! Sad it happened at all, though
I drive through this tunnel daily, what a great upload.
And again, today…
I remember this.
I lived across the bay, and the fire was visible from many miles away.
There was some kind of overnight spill there in the 90s but tankers weren't allowed in rush hour anymore by then
This event is the reason trucks hauling haz/mat (hazardous) now have to use ring roads around cities and avoid tunnels all together
I really enjoy your videos. I look forward to them. Thank you.
I remember that morning fairly well. My husband commuted through that tunnel every work day.
Great video! 💛
Sad but interesting spot of “chains per inch” on the old drawings - I remember my old maths teacher drumming weird imperial units into us in the 90s (yeah) and a chain happened to be 1 cricket pitch length or 22 yards 😮
Pink Floyd lyrics: an acre in the area of a rectangle whose length is one furlong and whose width is one chain. Stand still laddie!
or 66 feet, the length of a ten pin bowling lane.
I went through the same tunnel that night, a couple of hours before the event on the way to the city. On the way home the tunnels were closed and we had to go over Fish Ranch Rd. We could still see the smoke pouring out.
Good morning John. Watching while having my breakfast ramen. Good start to a day which looks to be much better than the poor souls in this video.
The Caldecott Tunnels are still terrifying. As a Bay Area native, I do everything I can to avoid them, and when I have to drive them, I do so with lead space in front of me and at 5-10mph under the limit. I also breathe a sigh of relief every time that I exit the tunnels.
I remeber this quite well. I've ridden or driven through that tunnel thousands of times.
My good friends mother was the woman who was killed trying to make the emergency call. Her son, an off-duty cop, went to the entrance and was credited with stopping many more people from entering. A horrible event that I remember all too well as I read my friend's mother's name in the newspaper the next day.
Thank you John
Thank God BART existed as an alternative to this route. It would prove it's worth as an alternative again 7 years later when the Loma Prieta Earthquake damaged the Bay Bridge.
I commute through the Caldecot Tunnel to get to work sometimes, and one thing I sometimes notice in the summer is that on the Walnut Creek side the sky can be bright and warm, but on the Oakland side, cloudy and cold. Its strange how much of a difference there is.