Public works truck involved in crash that injured six

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- A cleanup was under way Friday following a car accident that injured six people at the corner of 14th and Franklin in Oakland.

The store owner has already started cleaning up the mess left behind after a man and a woman came crashing through his glass door. "A beautiful morning. I heard a crash. I looked up and people were coming through the window, literally," told ABC7 News.

At least six people were hurt when an SUV and a Public Works truck crashed into each other. The truck then hit pedestrian as it smashed into a building. A man and a woman on the sidewalk at the time were sent flying through a gallery window.

The impact was so strong that she was knocked out of her shoes. Her male companion went headfirst through this window. "He had a head cut and another almost closer to the neck," eyewitness Githinji Mbire said. "He came through the glass. The gentleman was... Half his body was inside and the legs were outside. We had to pull him outside." And, it didn't end there. After the truck hit the wall, the SUV kept moving down the sidewalk. The car tore down a pole, ripped off the bumper of a parked Nissan, and decimated the front windows and frame of a tiny nail salon.

Only yards away, Mbire did his best to help the victims in his shop. "We held this on his head," he said, holding up a tee-shirt. He did his best to stop the bleeding until help could arrive. Six people were taken to the hospital. The gallery owner says the man who came through his window appeared to have the most visible injuries.

Police have not determined who is at fault, but do know who was responsible for hitting the two on the sidewalk. "It looks like the Public Works truck struck two pedestrians," OPD Ofc. Johnna Watson told ABC7 News. Now, the cleanup has started. Shopkeepers hoping to keep their businesses running and city workers repairing traffic signs have left little evidence of the chaos that occurred earlier.

There is no word yet on the conditions of those injured. Most had minor injuries. Investigators say early indicators suggest it was a case of someone simply trying to beat a light.

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