answers after their son is killed in a fiery crash. good

afternoon. i'm audrey asistio welcome to nbc bay area news at 4:30. our ian cull is going to join us in just a little bit to talk about the latest on that crash. we're also tracking other stories on this tuesday, including a close call for a south bay child. so you can see this video right behind me here. you see that man punched through that window. that child there injured from the shattering glass at an ice cream shop. we've got more details from police this afternoon, plus the push to replace the gas tax. whether you fill up or not, the state could start charging all drivers so it doesn't run out of funding for road work. how the state could pay you to help them find a solution. but first, a fire in san francisco giving a devastating blow to a man who has suffered racist harassment this past year. there are concerns this afternoon that a fire near san francisco's alamo square that destroyed two homes may have been set intentionally. one of the people who lives there, terry williams, says he's

recently been getting disturbing racist mail. san francisco fire and police haven't figured out if that is actually connected to this fire. firefighters did rush to the fire at fillmore and grove shortly before noon today. they arrived to find the three story building engulfed in flames. firefighters pulled two people from that fire, rushed them to the hospital. they are william's parents, he says. he was away from the house when that fire started and neighbors acted quickly to get his three dogs to safety. my girl dog didn't want. she kept trying to run up in the house to get to my mom. so that's my mom's favorite dog. so him. so they was holding him. he was looking for me, stressed out. i was hoping they didn't bite. no firemen. if they did, i'm sorry. so the fire department did say that the dogs didn't bite anyone. williams is a well-known dog walker in the neighborhood. among the racist mailings he's received recently, and we've reported about this one dolls with nooses around their heads. san francisco police detectives are trying to figure out who is sending them,

but they haven't made any arrests at this point. our sérgio quintana broke the story on social media, and he's going to be joining us live at 5:00 with much more. one man was killed and another badly injured in a fiery crash overnight in fremont. neighbors say that the stretch of road where it happened is known for speeding and a warning. our story includes surveillance video of that crash, the aftermath, which some of you may find disturbing. nbc bay area's ian cull joins us now. ian, go ahead and take us through exactly what happened here. yeah, a tough scene out there today as one car smashed into a tree in fremont about 1230 this morning, we obtained surveillance video of the crash and scene. we're going to freeze it at the point of the crash and then show still photos of the aftermath. but it is still hard to watch. the car is going to come from the top left of your screen and smashes into the tree . the sedan was nearly torn in half and immediately engulfed in flames. a fremont police officer in the area responded in seconds

with a fire extinguisher, along with good samaritans trying to help. eventually, they were able to pull one of the men to safety before the car reignited. fremont boulevard near thornton was closed until just before noon today. one man was killed, another is in the hospital today. we talk with people who were there shortly after it happened. someone came up and said, where's the driver? officer said, this is the driver. and then the guys that knew that was the driver said, that's not the driver. and they immediately ran to the car. but then the car had burst into flames. ian, i know police are very busy right now investigating exactly what the cause may be. have they figured that out at all? not yet. fremont police say they don't have one yet. still, early on in the investigation in late today, officers still did not know the condition of the man who was pulled from the wreck. either the coroner will identify the driver who was who died. the car hit the tree outside of bogey's discount pet food and supplies, which was damaged from the debris on impact. the manager

there and witnesses say more traffic calming measures are needed on fremont boulevard so drivers will slow down. you hear about stuff like this all the time, and i mean, i've been in a few car accidents on myself, but like, this is something else. this is this is crazy man at the scene saying he's the father of the driver. talk to our bob redell told him, telling him in spanish that he believes firefighters could have pulled his son from the car. no one else from the family wanted to talk with us, but you'll hear more from witnesses coming up at 530. surely a tough time for that family. all right, ian, thank you so much. we'll see you at 530. san jose police are looking for the victims of an assault that happened at an ice cream shop. that's what you're looking at here. video captured all of it. you could see the man and child walk in. child sits down, then that man right there punches the window from outside. right behind the child breaking that window. shattered, glass falling all over the child. this happened on april 26th at a

baskin-robbins off of east capitol expressway. police say that man right there, payam afsari, was the one who punched that window. he was arrested last week, but the victims left that store before the assault was reported. you're going there just for ice cream. but then you're assaulted with glass. and so, really, who knows what damage that could have caused physically or mentally to this child, again, we do ask that the victims please come forward. we really want full closure for this case. afsari was booked on assault with a deadly weapon and child abuse charges. if you recognize the victims, you are asked to contact san jose police. state supreme court justices have wrapped oral arguments on proposition 22 in a san francisco courtroom today. the measure was approved four years ago. defining gig economy workers as independent contractors. rideshare and delivery companies supported that measure, which was a response to a supreme court decision requiring companies to classify gig workers as employees. opponents call prop

22 unconstitutional, saying it doesn't offer enough worker protections. they want it overturned. a ruling is expected in the coming months. all right. california is looking for test drivers in hopes of solving some trouble down the road. state has been looking for ways to replace its current gas tax, which funds major highway projects. so right now they're testing a new program that would charge drivers by the miles they drive instead of the gallons of gas they pump. marianne favro has been speaking with caltrans about this today. joins us now. marianne, the gas tax is going up nearly $0.60 already $0.60 a gallon. this summer. that's still not enough. well, caltrans says that it's facing extremely high costs for road maintenance and highway projects tied directly to inflation. but there's another issue. all of these projects are paid for with money from the gas tax. but because so many more people now

own electric vehicles like the one you see here behind me, they are not buying gas. so therefore the gas tax money is dwindling. marianne, you know, a lot of people are wondering how do they plan on to actually track the miles people are driving and are they concerned at all about privacy or security? well, i can tell you a lot of drivers that i spoke with today are definitely concerned about security. so caltrans says they can track your miles two ways. one, kind of an old school way. you just simply take a photo of your odometer and send that photo into caltrans. the other is for them to give you a transponder, which you put inside your vehicle, and they can track it that way. now, caltrans assures me that all of this information will go to an account manager, and caltrans will only have access to the number of miles that you travel, not where you drove, marianne, i'm going to ask for all of the ev drivers

who don't need gas to drive. why would they want to sign up to be charged a new tax. yeah that's an excellent question. and i asked the leader of this program , and she told me that anyone who participates in the six month pilot program will receive $400 to offset their time and investment into the project, but also anyone who participates and drives a gas powered vehicle will be reimbursed for the gas tax money, so they won't be taxed twice. but you're right. i mean, if you drive an electric vehicle, why would you want to participate in this? simply because probably the $400 cost over six months is not really enough to be invested in that. all right. well, marianne, thank you for that preview. i know we're going to be seeing your full report coming up later this evening, so we will see you then. also this afternoon, another round of layoffs in the

bay area, this time at pixar studios. you're looking at the headquarters in emeryville. parent company disney says it is laying off 14% of the pixar pixar workforce. that's about 175 employees. disney says it wants to focus on quality content over quantity. specifically, it wants to make more movies for the theaters and less streaming content for disney plus. not clear yet if any of the cuts will affect the employees in emeryville. some cities in the bay area are sounding the alarm over a shortage of nurses and 911 dispatchers and san francisco supervisor asha safai says that he has a plan to address the problem. he joined nurses, 911 operators and union leaders at zuckerberg general hospital today to talk about it. ideas to change the city's charter with two new amendments. the first would offer nurses retirement credits as an incentive. the second would give 911 workers a better pension to make the job

more appealing. they stated the city desperately needs a change. we're coming together to put forward a common sense charter amendment that will encourage more nurses. we will fill those vacancies. it's going to encourage more 911 call operators to be part of our system, to fill those vacancies so we can have a better service delivery system in the city and county of san francisco. so supporters are going to file the proposed amendments today. and if they are approved, you will see them on the november ballot. okay. the heat is rising and it is bringing out the coyotes. the warning this afternoon for everyone visiting parks in the east bay, plus the world's coral reefs are in trouble. colorful creatures are turning bone white. vienna is going to be joining us with what's causing it. before we head to break, we want to know what trending story would you like to see later on in this newscast? as usual, i have a poll up right now on my

instagram. a lot of you have already voted, but for those of you who haven't, you still have a little bit more time to vote for one of these stories right here. liquid death giving away jet japantown blocks viral mount fuji view or free ai assistant for all us teachers. we'll tell you all a a slow network is no network for business. that's why more choose comcast business. and now, we're introducing ultimate speed for business —our fastest plans yet. we're up to 12 times faster than verizon, at&t, and t-mobile. and existing customers could even get up to triple the speeds... at no additional cost. it's ultimate speed for ultimate business. don't miss out on our fastest speed plans yet! switch to comcast business and get started for $49.99 a month. plus, ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card. call today!

he has an update on a story. he and his team have been working on for months now regarding gift cards. these things, those things right here uh.huh thieves are going after these things. so what's the latest? what's going on? so what we now know, after digging into this for months and months, is it appears that there is a syndicate going after these cards. and now tonight at six, we'll tell you about a brand new federal operation that aims to shut down the scam. wow. and protect your gift card money. okay, that sounds very promising for people who like to buy gift cards. yeah, we'll also help you protect your balance if you have one of these and haven't spent

it yet. got it? sounds great. see you at six. we'll see you at six. kris. thanks so much. bye, audrey. bye turning now to our climate and crisis. heat stress levels in our world's oceans are literally off the charts of noaa's alert system, and it's sadly endangering coral reefs. meteorologist vianey arana is here now. vianey. what exactly did scientists find? because it's pretty sad. it is. it's alarming. i mean, officials at noaa are saying the world's oceans have gone, quote, crazy haywire. haywire, i should say. and the data is pretty alarming. now, two thirds of the world's coral reefs are facing heat level stress high enough to cause bleaching. so let's start with what is coral bleaching? it happens as a result of abnormal ocean conditions, such as unusually warm or cold temperatures, or when the water is more acidic than normal. the corals respond by pushing out tiny photosynthetic algae that live inside their tissue that causes the normally colorful marine wildlife to turn ghostly white. researchers are hoping for a shift, and i'm just hoping

that the water temperatures will will come down enough to for the most of the corals to survive and recover. because the alternative is if the corals die, then it's, you know, takes a long time for reefs to recover. and scientists say coral can survive bleaching, but the process of it bleaching itself makes it susceptible to things like diseases and can also stunt the growth and reproduction. now, noaa had to add additional alert levels in order to properly categorize how hot it was. as of december 2023, the new heat scale reflects a severity from 1 to 5, reflecting near complete mortality at that five level, or greater than 80. widespread impacts span across both northern and southern hemispheres. now there is currently, you know, in the east coast right now, and the west coast research being done to connect that. but one thing's for sure is they're finding that with climate change in a warming

climate, that there are impacts directly related to coral bleaching. and you can actually monitor coral bleaching and where it's at right now, levels wise on the noaa website. i'll make sure to link that in this climate and crisis story. wouldn't think that, you know, you wouldn't think that's happening as well. it's pretty sad because coral reefs are so beautiful. they really are. and, you know, this impacts our great barrier reef in australia. scientists there have been ringing the alarm for quite some time, so we'll definitely keep a close eye on this one. all right ryan thank you. we're going to take you back on land now because there's a coyote warning in the east bay right now. east bay regional park says that warm weather is bringing more people to the parks, of course, which means more encounters with coyotes. usually a coyote would just run away when it sees people, but some have become accustomed to humans and will stand their ground. the parks department says you should always keep dogs on a leash, and your small children close by. if you do see a coyote, they recommend you just calmly walk away. if a coyote approaches you

, try to make yourself big and loud to try and scare it away. well, this month there is an effort to make sure kids are getting the mental health care that they need. so here's marcus washington with more. well, may is mental health awareness month and a new multi-state initiative is aiming to help our kids struggling in middle and high school. the schultz family foundation, along with pinterest and americorps. they've teamed up with 11 states, including california, to create a new youth mental health corps. now this is going to help kids with mental health issues get support, which is lacking in many parts of the country. now, we do know that locally, there's a shortage of mental health providers who actually can afford the bay area and insurance coverage is usually not long enough to help people get better. last year, a mental health america study found that almost 60% of young americans with major depression did not receive any mental health treatment, and that's badly needed. the cdc study found that suicide rate among young americans increased more than

60. this is between 2007 and 2021. the new youth mental health corps would deploy specially trained 18 to 24 year old men and women to help their peers navigate and help find mental health system. they have somebody they can talk to who can say, look, these are the best resources in our area, let me help get you there, more quickly, around the country, we have young people that are just, waiting for weeks and weeks in some cases months and months to access services in some cases, it's because they just don't know where to go, where there are, let's say, shorter. wait times, where there are resources that are more commensurate to their needs. now, the youth mental health corps launches in some states this september. the rest of the states, including california, it will happen in the fall of 2025. now you must have a high school diploma and

be between the ages of 18 and 24 to apply. now for more stories like this, join us for today in the bay. we start at 5 a.m. on air. you can also watch nbc bay area news whenever you want. we're on 24/7 on roku and other streaming platforms. i'm marcus washington, back to you. all right marcus, thanks so much. a lot happening on this tuesday. and our janelle wang is working on the 5:00 news for us. hi, audrey. the alameda county district attorney is taking on major insurance companies in california. da pamela price is suing multiple home insurance companies, accusing them of widespread schemes, including under insuring people's homes. so in the event of a disaster, homeowners are stuck rebuilding their homes out of pocket. we're going to tell you which companies she is targeting and on the heels of graduating college, a local student is already making a difference in the world. during school, she noticed her fellow college students were having a hard time getting by. unable to even buy food. the effort she put forth to change that, it will make you very proud. all those stories and more coming up at 5:00

sounds like an amazing human being. she is looking forward to her story. thanks, janelle. we'll see you in a little bit. still to come top trending story as voted by you on my instagram poll. also two new ferry boats are set to launch this year, but they need a little help before they start carrying passengers. the new naming contest

i'm pole ready buying a can of sparkling water could land you a fighter jet this summer. liquid death says it's giving away an actual $400,000 fighter jet called the dehydrator. la based company says every in-store purchase of a liquid death product counts as an entry. as long as you upload, upload a photo on its website. there's actually some back story here. contest is a callback to an old pepsi promotion that ended with a lawsuit. there is a whole netflix series about this. if

you're not in the market for a fighter jet, you know, maybe not interested in that so much. companies offering $250,000 in cash as a substitute. and as always, i'll be posting links to the other stories you voted for on my instagram. thanks for voting. all right. calling all students now it is a chance to name two new ferry boats. ferries are joining the fleet of san francisco bay ferry company, a public ferry service company says it's looking for submissions from students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and they can submit names on san francisco bay ferry.com and then the board of directors will vote on the top two names. good luck. looking forward to hearing what those names are. all right, i am with meteorologist vianey arana now once again to take a look at the forecast. currently it's looking pretty nice out there. it is. and if you've had a chance to be outside, you know it's hard to go inside the building once you've seen just how lovely the temperatures have been in inland areas. we've got clear skies even around the

coastline. just a couple low clouds hanging out. tough. but aside from that, we've got nice weather in store. so let's get right to the temperatures and the temperature changes. notice we've got 60s right now in san francisco, a couple of 70s and through fremont. meanwhile, we've got 80s down through the south bay and the interior. and if you notice, we are running a few degrees warmer, just as we forecasted that warmth about 13 degrees warmer right now in areas like morgan hill. now let's talk about what we're seeing right now on satellite. you'll notice mostly clear conditions a couple areas of cloud cover. but the afternoons have been absolutely lovely. so what can we expect over the next couple of hours. will san francisco notice we're going to dip down into the 50s but mostly clear. we've got some breezy winds from the west northwest at about 20mph around the coastline, clear skies over san jose. it's about 83 degrees right now. light breeze from the north northwest at about 15mph. and notice we're going to go down into those 70s at around 7:00. and you probably notice even at night into the early morning hours, it's been quite warm. and that's what we're going to see tonight. notice that ten 11:00 still in those 60s. so i don't think that

you're going to need to bundle up at all tonight if you're going to be in through parts of the interior, make sure to join us once again at 5:00. though. chief meteorogist jeff ranieri is going to have more details on the remainder of your workweek in the extended outlook. audrey. sounds gd. vanna. thank you so much. and you can watch nbc bay area news whenever you want. by the way, we're streaming our newscast 24/7 on roku and other streaming platforms. there you can watch live newscasts breaking updates, and of course, more of our content. thank you. so much for joining us at 430. jess and janelle are working on the 5:00 newscast next, and we are back in just two minutes.

at a home that's been receiving racist mail. now that fire raising questions that police and fire have to answer. also, a singapore airlines flight turns deadly after hitting severe turbulence. what local experts

say you can do to ensure your safety in the next time you fly. and she is getting ready to graduate from usf. but what she did while in college may be just as impressive, if not more. her story is going to make you bay area proud. the news at five starts right now. thanks for joining us. i'm jessica aguirre and i'm janelle wang. a fire in san francisco's alamo square neighborhood has destroyed two homes and injured two people. one of them is the home of a man who has been getting disturbing racist mail. but as the fire and the mail connected, that's the question. nbc bay area sid quintana was the first reporter on the scene. he joins us there now with the very latest. said he'll. jessica and janelle, this is a fire that raced very quickly, according to some of the neighbors that we talked with when fire investigators arrived, they acted very fast. i can tell you that there has been a joint investigative task

force, fire investigators and police investigators that have been inside that building, which is two units. it's a top unit. and then the middle unit there. they have been going through both of those floors collecting evidence. they've also been talking to neighbors, collecting other evidence like video. and those investigators are very much aware of the history of this address getting racist packages. as soon as fire crews arrived on scene, they quickly attended to two people who were inside the three story building on fillmore street and got them to the hospital. both are the parents of terry williams. he's pretty rattled by this. this don't feel good right now. you know, because i'm like, i'm the only son. so i feel like i should have been here, you know? i mean, i could have stopped, prevented anything. you know? but the fire isn't the only thing williams and his family have been dealing with lately. over the last several months, he's received a number of packages with items so offensive we've had to blur them out. they're black dolls with