Golden Gate Bridge crash sickens police with…
Golden Gate Bridge crash sickens police with fentanyl exposure
By George Kelly |
PUBLISHED: September 13, 2020 at 3:40 p.m. | UPDATED: September 14, 2020 at 5:04 p.m.
Four California Highway Patrol officers and a Golden Gate Bridge patrol officer were treated for possible fentanyl exposure after responding to a vehicle blocking Golden Gate Bridge lanes, authorities said.
Around 11:45 a.m. Sunday, dispatchers received a call reporting an apparently intoxicated driver heading north toward the bridge. A second caller reported that the vehicle collided with a movable median barrier and the driver was unconscious, CHP Officer Andrew Barclay.
When police reached the car, an officer entered to check on the driver and put the vehicle in park to prepare for towing. Moments after a tow truck moved it from the bridge to the Alexander Avenue offramp, the officer who had entered the vehicle became violently ill and nearly became unconscious.
Shortly after, the tow truck driver and a second CHP officer began displaying symptoms of possible fentanyl exposure, Barclay said.
As other officers and paramedics arrived at the scene, they began using Narcan doses, giving attention first to the primary officer, who appeared to have received the largest fentanyl exposure.
By the time the situation was under control, at least two other CHP officers and one Golden Gate Bridge patrol officer had also been exposed, for a total of seven people including the original driver.
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The Narcan doses, provided to many police and paramedics for emergency revival of people exposed to fentanyl, "appear to be responsible for those officers still being with us," Barclay said.
George Kelly
In Your Town for Jan. 15, 2020