heh! not exactly breaking news 2.5 hours after we got our power back on. six hours without power! thank goodness we have a fireplace.

Again???

Breaking news to me.... as I sit stuck in traffic. How long is this going to take??

It is pretty plaine to see that these poles come out at night and jump in front of cars. I have pictures. The truth is out there.

Late for work and 20 minutes sitting in a traffic jam.

I realize that the fault ultimately lies with the driver (unless some critter jumped out) but perhaps it's time to line the edges of this road with reflective markers - they are much more visible than the current white line especially when faced with oncoming lights.

Was there alcohol involved that area is straight as an arrow and the turn has good visabilty

This happens every couple of weeks.

I think reflective markers all along the left side of the road would be a great idea as it is a really dark road.

If the driver took off I'd be willing to bet there was something more sinister here than adding reflective lights. He either had a warrant or was drunk.... the car will be reported stolen later in the day.

Maybe if we string up the driver and leave him dangling from a power pole on Moraga Way as a warning to others?

Five will get you ten that the driver of the errant pick-up was uninsured, unlicensed, undocumented, drunk or a combination of the above.

No bet!

Zombies

I'd venture to say that closure of one of the most heavily used commuter routes in town is worthy of a breaking news alert.... we didn't see it in time but wish we had!

Well the accident happened at 10:30 pm. I thought the werewolves would go out only after midnight and when the moon is full...?

Made for a lousy commute, but fortunately, I saw a news report on the KGO morning news, got a text from Miramonte and they posted a tweet with the information. My kid got to school by driving through Moraga and arrived on time. He said he was the only one there though...

I posted a message on patch Facebook site around 11pm but they removes it. Anyone know the best way to email/post late breaking news??

Came through within the past 30 minutes - still a very slow detour in place.

It will start locking up again around 4. TGIF traffic is lighter than usual. Find that driver yet?

What is really uneasy, is how unprepared our elected city people are is when something like this is upon us. No one on how to properly direct traffic, i.e. sending an 18 wheeler up a hill, into streets that no way he will be able to make the turn, so, off the road he goes only to block the already backed up traffic. I was in it for one hour today, saw (1) patrol car go by, only to get stuck like the rest of us. The worst was the blocked fire department driveways. Not handled very well at all. I hope what we saw today wasn't the cities "best game plan" on how to take care of these type of situations.

Any updates on this? Wondering what traffic might be like presently...thanks!

Perfect example of why there should be no more building in Moraga.....The roads cannot handle it.

I'm wondering who will have to pay for the damaged power pole?

Just another reason that Moraga should have let Gateway go through but Nooooo they didn't want to invest in a road Just let Orinda and Laf deal with the flood of traffic in and out. I think Orinda needs many more traffic signals on Moraga Way just to help Orindians to be able to turn onto Moraga Way safely without the threat of causing an accident.

I was hoping for a little more police presence out there too. It got a little sporty in the afternoon and it would have been worse on a bigger commute day. Good picture..... must have been a nightmare to get that worked out. And just remember, one person caused the whole thing.

In every other police related article many people say that Lamorinda has too many cops and all they do is write tickets and generate revenue. Now in this story several people complain about no police officers directing traffic. Orinda PD has 2 officers working the street and 1 traffic officer. I usually see 2 officers (or PG&E people, construction workers etc) directing traffic at construction sites etc. This accident happened at around 1045 at night, I don't know when the roadway got opened up but based on the posts above it sounds like late afernoon so lets just call it 18 hours. 3 cops working, 2 doing traffic control to get people through a little faster leaves 1 cop to work the city for 18 hours. Doesn't add up for me. You can't have it both ways folks, either there's too many cops in Lamorinda or more cops are needed for when things like this happen.

Several factors contributed: too much traffic; worst possible location of heavily used connector street; extended response time by utility company; lack of adequate traffic control around the affected area ---- and one guy behind the wheel of a truck probably when he shouldn't have been.

Amanda is right though, this is happening regularly now.