SAN FRANCISCO HEROES

June 15, 2010|By John Coté, Chronicle Staff

A man and a woman who had just arrived from Ohio for a San Francisco visit were killed Monday when their cab heading in from the airport slammed into a freeway support pillar and burst into flames, authorities said.

Three San Francisco Sheriff's Deputies who happened to be driving by pulled the passengers from the burning DeSoto Cab Co. taxi at the bottom of an Interstate 280 off-ramp, California Highway Patrol Officer Shawn Chase said. Both passengers were taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where they died.

The driver told investigators that the brakes on his Dodge Intrepid cab had failed, Chase said. The driver was hospitalized, but his injuries are not considered life-threatening.
The victims caught the cab at San Francisco International Airport and had been headed to the InterContinental Mark Hopkins hotel on Nob Hill, Chase said. Their names have not been released, and their relationship to each other was not immediately known.

The crash happened just before 11 a.m. at the base of the Mariposa Street off-ramp from northbound I-280.  The driver, whose name has not been released, was heading north on Highway 101 near Candlestick Park when he smelled smoke, Chase said. He exited onto I-280, and when the smoky smell did not disperse, he took the Mariposa off-ramp, he told investigators.

He said he had tried to brake at the bottom of the off-ramp, but got no response. The cab crashed though a chain-link fence at the end of the off-ramp at about 40 mph, then slammed into the steel-and-concrete freeway pillar, Chase said.

The driver was able to get out of the cab, and the three deputies driving by in a sheriff's transport van stopped and pulled out the passengers, Chase said.

The deputies were treated for smoke inhalation and minor injuries, he said.
An official at DeSoto's San Francisco office did not return a call seeking comment.

E-mail John Coté at jcote@sfchronicle.com. (C) San Francisco Chronicle 2010