Limo Fire Kills Passengers, Closes San Mateo Bridge [San Francisco Bay]

NBC Bay Area ^ | Sunday, May 5, 2013

[Lonely Bull]

The westbound lanes of the San Mateo-Hayward bridge were closed for several hours Saturday night due to a deadly fire involving a limosine.

The California Highway Patrol said the fire was first reported around 10 p.m. in the third lane of westbound state Highway 92 at the bridge's decline. As many as ten people were inside the limo and as many as five of them died, according to multiple reports

Witnesses at the scene reported people were trapped inside the burning limo. The CHP told NBC Bay Area there were multiple fatalities, but could not confirm a number.

Witnesses told NBC Bay Area the limo was not involved in an accident prior to catching on fire. It was not clear what could have sparked the flames.

This is prom season, so there were fears that the group could be high school students on their way to a dance, but the Hayward Daily Review newspaper spoke to a CHP officer who said the victims were not teenagers. but adult women.

[mountn man]

for those who don’t know Richie Pryor.

for those who didn't know Richie Pryor.

[Carriage Hill]

“... but all 5 doors and windows are electric.”

Should be: ...but all 4 doors and 5 windows (incl back bay area) are electric.

[CityCenter]

Thank you.

[null and void]

Parents and children.

Mind you, I like dark humor as much as the next guy,

Me too. That's why I'm making a point of expressing my wishes that my passage be guilt free for those like us. I've said so explicitly here and on at least a dozen other occasions.

but this isn’t one of those times.

No, it isn't, still humor is a coping mechanism. Even then, a format with infinite memory and no pity is a poor one for such.

[FreedomPoster]

There is almost certainly a way to reset that so the rear seat passenger is able to unlock and open the rear door.

[rlmorel]

In this case, I don't see it quite like that. I think it just gets abstracted (it IS the Internets) and people forget that there are people behind many of the things we read.

I had an interesting experience a while back on FR, it was a story that seemed chock full of humor (This was my post):

Well...

At least they weren't a Roger Clemens

and a well-built

flight attendant stumbling off into the woods behind a diner during a drunken stayover then getting busted because the busty women was caught butt-naked inebriatedly fumbling around in a Fire Chief's truck looking for a flashlight so she could stagger naked back into the woods to hopefully find her clothes then locate the pilot who was still out there somewhere passed out in the dark before the Fire Chief called the Police (which he did) and showed up to encourage her to show her where the guy was before he froze to death passed out somewhere only to find out she was so drunk and they had gone so far out into the large forest that they had to use bloodhounds and heat-seeking helicopters to discover his unconscious, splayed and prone figure on the ground with his (and her) clothing nowhere in sight which impelled the authorities to slap both of them with all kinds of charges ranging from lewd and lascivious behavior to felonious breaking and entering after which the airline decided it had to punish them both by invoking "The 12 Hour Bottle to Throttle" rule (of which they were in obvious violation of) and thereby causing their employment to be terminated with the resultant story pasted nearly everywhere on the Internet (which basically means everywhere on earth) so now you are famous in a Twenty-First Century kind of way just because you were doing what comes naturally to humans intensified by and lubricated with boredom, alcohol and lust...

Nothing like them...:) No matter what, I think aliens would look at us and find us most entertaining. Humans are colorful, if nothing else.

Now, nobody really got hurt. But these two people had to endure probably hundreds of thousands of pieces of opinion like this, because they got drunk and made a mistake. Sometimes it occurs that, if it were not for luck, I could have been that guy.

In the case of this story, people died horribly, and people, including us, forget this is real.

It isn't some abstract thing.

[atc23]

That’s BS

[Conserev1]

I think I have to duct tape the child lock it’s on the face of the front of the door and Re-locks after every operation of the door even though you set it in the unlock mode!
If anyone has a windstar maybe you can advise me!

[Conserev1]

Had tickets to see his show that weekend in LA.
Was a terrible event. I guess the Garden Party is goin strong!

[rawhide]

More:

A limousine heading to a bachelorette party burst into flames in the San Francisco area, killing five female passengers, including the bride-to-be, while four other women managed to escape, according to the mother of one of the survivors.

[Sarah Barracuda]

Absolutely HORRIBLE..and this woman was about to be married..my condolences to everyone involved

[rawhide]

More:

The coroner on the case is telling a harrowing tale of the fire and desperate attempt to get out of the limo

San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault NBC Bay Area’s Diane Dwyer that the scene last night was the worst he’s witnessed after 20 years on the job.

He said it was obvious to him that the women were trying to get out of the vehicle and were overcome by smoke. “My understanding is that three passengers got out the side back door on the drivers side, and one made it out the passenger compartment window successfully - to the driver’s compartment,” Fourcrault said.

Fourcrault said passengers alerted the driver that there was smoke in the passenger compartment so he pulled over, got out and discovered that the back passenger side of the limo was fully engulfed in flames.

The coroner said three of the women made it out the back door on the driver’s side. One made it through the divider into the driver’s area.

The remaining women did not survive and were found near the front of the passenger compartment as if they were trying to get to the driver’s area through the privacy divider. The coroner’s office plans to use dental records Monday to positively identify the victims.

[null and void]

Odd. Photos show the back door on the driver’s side as closed.

I’d guess that this event was horrific enough that even an experienced coroner...

[KneelBeforeZod]

So the survivors say that the back doors were locked. Although a local channel had a news spot that showed a similar limo and how the handles are deactivated when locked, but pulling the door locks “stems” would still work to unlock them.