Alameda, CA : District Attorney charges driver in fatal toll plaza crash on Sunday, December, 10th 2017

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office has charged Daniel Berk, the man behind the wheel of the box truck that killed an Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge toll collector, with seven felony counts, authorities said Monday.

In probable-cause documents filed in court Monday, district attorney staff charged Berk, a 32-year-old Foster City man, with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the death of Si Si Han, 46, of San Lorenzo, and six counts of driving under the influence with a specific allegation of causing great bodily injury to six other people.

According to those documents, a CHP officer said he and his partner responded to the Bay Bridge toll plaza at 5:11 a.m. and found Berk, who told them he was driving the white box truck that struck toll booth No. 14.

The officers “detected a faint odor of an alcoholic beverage and marijuana emanating from Berk’s person at the scene.” When an officer found Berk in the back of an ambulance at the scene, he said he smelled the same odors on Berk, and heard him tell paramedics he had been driving and that he had drunk an alcoholic beverage and smoked marijuana before the crash.

The officers, who said they reviewed surveillance footage of the crash that showed the box truck driving recklessly, also said paramedics noted Berk’s “constricted pupils and lack of reaction to direct light.”

California Highway Patrol officers arrested Berk, who was hospitalized with serious injuries, Dec. 2 on suspicion of driving under the influence and manslaughter. He was not listed in custody at any Alameda County jails late Monday, according to county records.

According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Berk’s license had been suspended Nov. 23, 2012, for a failure to appear in court. That suspension ended June 27, less than five months before the crash.

A GoFundMe online fundraiser for Han, whose family was unable to travel from Myanmar to attend a funeral, has raised $26,722 from more than 500 contributors within a week, exceeding its $25,000 goal Monday.

Staff writers Harry Harris, Rick Hurd and Matthias Gafni contributed to this report. Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.

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District Attorney charges driver in fatal toll plaza crash