"The truck appeared to have been coming off of the freeway exit when it plowed into the first vehicle causing a chain reaction," Ofc. Holly Joshi with the Oakland Police Department told ABC7.
Five people were hurt, but fortunately, not seriously.
Police officers at the scene say they had never seen an accident this big before and that it is a miracle that everyone was able to walk away from it.
A police sergeant told ABC7 the driver of the Honda that the dump truck smashed into was released from the hospital around 9 p.m. Fortunately, no one was in his back seat because his car's back end was completely smashed.
The truck plowed into a row of cars sitting at a red light -- 13 vehicles in all were damaged.
The driver of the dump truck, Tony, said his brakes failed. He told ABC7 how he felt when he heard everyone survived the crash.
"I was happy. Hopefully, I can get a hold of the people that got hurt and at least I can say sorry, something, anything. I didn't do it on purpose, you know, but I ruined their day big time. Their cars are smashed," said Tony.
The accident occurred around 4:30 p.m. and the off ramp was closed until 10:30 p.m., so that officers could clear the scene.
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