Passenger identified in fatal Bay Bridge box truck collision

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN/KTVU) - A man who died in a collision between a box truck and Golden Gate Transit bus on the Bay Bridge early Wednesday morning has been identified by the Alameda County coroner's bureau as 23-year-old Juhmoni Thompson Crain of Hayward.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Bert Diaz said that at about 4:30 a.m., officers received a call about the collision just east of Treasure Island in the westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge.

Three people, including Crain, were in the box truck, which rear-ended the bus as it came to a stop, Diaz said.

Crain was pronounced dead at the scene while the other passengers were brought to a hospital for treatment of serious injuries.

Golden Gate Transit spokeswoman Priya Clemens said two passengers on the bus -- a BART bus bridge en route from the MacArthur station in Oakland to the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco -- were also transported to a hospital.

The crash and resulting traffic backup prompted many Bay Area commuters to take BART trains rather than drive across the bridge.

BART officials wrote on Twitter Thursday morning that their ridership Wednesday was 441,321, up 21,656 from a typical Wednesday in May.

During the peak hour of the commute starting at 7:59 a.m., BART trains carried about 30,000 riders through the Transbay Tube, according to the transit agency.