I blame the CHP partially for this. They know where and when it's going to happen, and they don't patrol it heavily enough.
100 Cars Collide on a Fog-Cloaked Route
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 4, 2007
FRESNO, Calif. (AP), Nov. 3 — More than 100 cars and trucks crashed on a fog-shrouded freeway Saturday, killing at least two people and injuring dozens more, the California Highway Patrol said.
Eighteen big rigs were involved in the pileup on Highway 99 just south of Fresno, which occurred as patches of dense fog obscured visibility on the heavily traveled roadway, the police said.
"It looked like something out of a movie, walking up and seeing all the cars mangled and crushed," Officer Paul Solorzano Jr. said.
A 6-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man traveling in separate vehicles were killed in the chain-reaction collisions around 7:45 a.m., Officer Solorzano said.
"There was probably two-foot visibility in the fog when I got here — it was really bad," said Mike Bowman, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. "It looked like chaos. Cars were backed up on top of each other."
Rescuers had to extract several people from the wreckage, and paramedics took more than three dozen patients to the hospital with injuries, said a spokesman for the Fresno Fire Department spokesman, Ken Shockley.
"Everybody was trying to miss everybody, but it was impossible not to get hit," said Cindy Ramirez, 21, of Selma, whose purple Mazda pickup was rear-ended. "I'm fine physically, but I keep thinking about all of the things that could have happened."
Hours after the accident, the freeway was littered with smashed cars and trucks, broken glass, auto parts and blood. A big rig carrying stacked crates of live turkeys was stranded on the normally busy highway.
Crash victims gathered on the freeway shoulder near the wreckage, waiting to be interviewed by investigators.
The freeway's northbound lanes were shut indefinitely as investigators worked to determine the cause of the crash. Traffic backed up for miles south of the wreckage. Southbound lanes remained opened.
Thick seasonal fog known as tule fog typically occurs in Central California in the late fall and winter. A stretch of the highway several miles south was the scene of an autumn 74-car pileup nearly a decade ago that left two people dead.
nytimes.com |
