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Deadly Gasoline Tanker Crash Kills Two; Seven Mile Bridge Finally Reopened

November 10, 2005

The Seven Mile Bridge linking the Lower and Middle Keys reopened to traffic, more than 16 hours after a gasoline-laden tractor-trailer truck jackknifed and collided with an SUV, bursting into flames so hot that they melted the aluminum tanker top. Two people were killed and one seriously injured in the incident.

Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the crash, which had severed the only link between Key West and the mainland. The bridge, only two lanes wide, suffered some damage, including surface buckling from the fire's heat and chipping along its concrete barrier walls. But fiber optic cables and drinking water pipelines that run beneath it weren't harmed, as officials had originally feared.

Killed in the fire was truck driver Syed R. Zaidi, 45, of Miramar, who burned to death in the cab of his rig, state highway officials said. Zaidi, who'd moved from Pakistan to Opa-locka and then to Miramar some 13 years ago, had worked at a pawn shop in North Miami until getting his trucking license just last year. He opted for South Florida routes, like the one to the Keys, to keep him close to his wife and four small kids, his brother-in-law Saeed Zaidi said. ''What happened yesterday was not only tragic, it's a prime example of wrongful death,'' Zaidi said Tuesday night. ''Right now all of our family is in very deep shock.''

Also killed was the driver of the 2004 Dodge Durango SUV, 42-year-old Rafael Gonzalez of Miami, who died at the scene of injuries sustained in the crash. Gonzalez's passenger, Charlotte Saravia-Nunez, 27, was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she remained in serious but stable condition Tuesday. Both Gonzalez and Nunez resided at 4293 NW 11th Street in Miami, according to ID cards found on them by rescue workers, state highway officials said.

The fiery crash occurred about 5 p.m. when the southbound tanker, belonging to New Hampshire-based Abenaqui Carriers, first swerved. Sparks flew as it scraped the bridge's concrete walls and jackknifed, colliding with the SUV and bursting into flames, said Lt. Pat Santangelo, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol. The fire ''burned the top of the truck off and the metal melted away. You could see down into the top of the truck,'' said Marathon city spokeswoman Cindy Ecklund.

Firefighters from at least seven Monroe County fire units battled the flames for more than an hour until an airport fire-rescue truck from the Naval Air Station in Key West arrived, spraying both the tanker and road surface with foam. The U.S. Navy truck extinguished the blaze within 15 minutes, but hot spots continued to flare up for three hours, Ecklund said. Gas tanker fires can hit temperatures well above 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, HazMat officials at Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue said.

Responders worried as much about heat damage to the bridge as they did about the burning truck, and hosed the roadway to keep pavement temperatures down. Had the bridge collapsed under the flames, seven full sections of the cement structure would likely have fallen with it, said Marathon city spokeswoman Cindy Ecklund. But because the bridge is paved with concrete, and not asphalt, it was better able to withstand the intense heat.

Before reopening the roadway just after 9 a.m. Tuesday, state transportation workers inspected the bridgeway with a ''cherry-picker'' bucket truck, twisting the bucket's long arm over bridge walls to seek out any possible damage from below, highway officials said. While the accident caused a several-mile traffic jam Monday evening, by mid-day Tuesday, traffic flowed freely. Irene Toner, director of emergency management for Monroe County, said the bridge closure produced no gasoline or other shortages in the Lower Keys. The speed limit on the bridge has been temporarily lowered from 55 to 45. Due to heat damage, one lane remains closed at the accident site, near the south end of the bridge between mile markers 41 and 43.

As images of the blaze played widely on Miami airwaves Monday evening, some Keys residents chose to stay in South Miami-Dade Monday night instead of risking a trip home. ''My understanding is there were a lot of people who lived in the Keys who had to go past the Seven Mile Bridge, and they actually took hotel rooms in Florida City,'' Toner said.

Initial concerns that hundreds of gallons of gas had leaked over the roadway and into the sea proved unfounded, as most of the fuel in the tanker appeared to have burned, environmental cleanup crews said. Officials are still investigating what might have caused the trucker to swerve, although early leads suggest the move was likely an ''evasive action . . . consistent with a car coming head-on,'' Santangelo said. A preliminary report is expected within 10 days; anyone with information about the crash is urged to contact the FHP. The last time the Seven Mile Bridge was closed for so many hours was more than 20 years ago, when one of the old draw bridges running parallel to it burned.