The author and journalist was involved in a three-car crash this morning near the Dumbarton Bridge in San Mateo County, according to AP stories out of Menlo Park and San Francisco. Halberstam was a passenger in a car that was broadsided while turning left. He died at the scene of massive internal injuries. Three survivors were injured. Halberstam had spoken Saturday at UC Berkeley and was also in the Bay Area to interview retired NFL great Y.A. Tittle for a new book.

Orville Schell, the dean of Berkeley's graduate school of journalism, told the San Jose Mercury News by e-mail that Halberstam was on his way to an interview for his next book, about the Korean War, at the time of the accident. "I have spoken with David's wife in New York City, extended the condolences of the whole school and have offered to do everything that we can in this difficult time for her and their family," Schell said.

Mercury News, AP, SF Chronicle

Updated and edited