The truck crashed during a rainstorm around 7:30 p.m. in the area of Hamilton Street and Hegenberger Expressway and also left a 10-month-old infant missing and two adults and two juveniles injured, according to Oakland police.
The search for the infant, which included K-9 units sniffing the shores of the canal and at least a dozen divers wading through the water, lasted all day but has been switched from a rescue to a recovery and is being suspended overnight to protect the responders, Alameda County sheriff's spokesman J.D. Nelson said.
The crash appears to have occurred when a limousine bumped the rear of a pickup truck, causing the driver of the truck to lose control. The truck rolled into a nearby canal and landed on its roof in 3-foot-deep water, Oakland fire Lt. David Brue said.
Uaisele was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
The injured victims, two adults and two juveniles, were taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries that were not considered life threatening, according to Brue.
The search for the infant's body was suspended for the night after the tide came in. Lack of visibility and an excess of garbage in the water also make it hard to search at night, Nelson said.
"No infant can survive in the water for more than 12 hours," Nelson said. "At that point it's not a rescue, it's a recovery."
Nelson said, "You get to a point where the risk is too great for the responders. The water is terrible; it's very murky and polluted. Those hazards put the divers at risk."
Nelson said he expects fire crews will resume the search Monday morning.
