Truck Explodes on Gowanus Expressway

Yesterday morning, a truck drove into a column on a Gowanus Expressway overpass and burst into flames. The driver was rescued by two other drivers on the road who saw the accident - an off-duty firefighter and a computer technician. Firefighter Donald Casey and Jon Kalleberg managed to pull the driver, Franklin Montes, from the truck's rig before its fuel tanks exploded. Montes was screaming about his broken leg, but as Casey told the Daily News, "I thought to myself, if I don't get him out of here he's going to have a much bigger problem than his leg." Montes was taken to the hospital in critical condition, while Kalleberg and Casey went on their way.

Here's a slideshow from WNBC - it's amazingly lucky no one else was injured. A friend who saw smoke from the accident said the thick, black smoke freaked out some people momentarily. The Department of Transportation, which owns the pedestrian walkway over the six-lane highway, was inspecting the damage; most of the lanes in both directions reopened by 11PM last night.