100 Car Pileup Kills 2 In California

Dense Fog Blamed For Crash On Highway 99 South Of Fresno

(AP)  Dense fog along a busy highway was blamed for a massive pileup of as many as 100 cars, killing two people and injuring dozens, the California Highway Patrol said.

At least nine big rigs were involved in the pileup on northbound Highway 99 just south of Fresno, CHP officials said. No hazardous materials were spilled.

"It looked like something out of a movie, walking up and seeing all the cars mangled and crushed," said CHP Officer Paul Solorzano, Jr.

A 5-year-old boy and a 26-year-old man traveling in separate vehicles were killed in the chain-reaction collisions around 7:45 a.m., he 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 trapped in the wreckage, and paramedics transported more than three dozen patients to the hospital with injuries, Fresno City Fire Department spokesman Ken Shockley said.

"Everybody was trying to miss everybody, but it was impossible not to get hit," said Cindy Ramirez, 21, of Selma, whose purple Mazda pickup truck 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 gas, auto parts and blood. A big rig carrying stacked crates of live turkeys was stranded on the normally busy highway.

Crash victims sat near the wreckage, waiting to be interviewed by investigators.

The freeway's northbound lanes were shut down indefinitely as investigators worked to determine the cause of the crash. Traffic backed up for miles south of the wreckage. Southbound lanes remained opened.

The California Highway Patrol arrested one of the drivers involved in the pileup. He's charged with drunken driving, although police don't think he caused the crash.

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.

[tucano2]

More evidence, if any was actually required, that Illegal Aliens should NEVER get driver''s licenses from New York or anywhere else.

[shanev137]

Idiots. Why would people drive that fast if there was only 2 feet of visibility.

[vancouverboo]

There''s nothing you can do when you hit the Tule fog. If you slow down or stop you''ll get hit from behind. If you keep going you have to trust that there''s not an accident ahead to run into. It''s absolutely blind driving. It''s hell.

[nothappyatall]

"I was driving a tractor trailer, and you couldn''''t see 2 feet in front of you either at 11:00pm that night, so, thats when I decided to find me a parking lot for the rest of the evening."

See that now, Jetranger7 was a smart cookie, he''s no fool, he got his behind in a safe spot for the night while the chip munching stereo blasting idiots kept driving 65 through zero visibility and of course the rest is history as they plowed into one another.

[nothappyatall]

Firozali A.Mulla MBA PhD; we don''t give a phux, this story is about a freeway pileup, go back to Africa.

Now on the story here, here we go again- kids, the driver''s manual and rules of the road as well as the law says you must keep your vehicle under control at all times, that means if someone stops short in front of you, and you rear-end them- YOU are the one who gets the ticket and pays the damage.
In other words, clueless CD listening yabbering cell phone users were not watching the road OR the conditions and were driving too fast- both obvious by the end results.
When you see fog or smoke or brake lights ahead you put down the cell phone or chips and big mac and SLOW DOWN!

[mediapreachr]

Firozali A.Mulla MBA PhD
Go bark on another tree.

[feelfree1]

Re: "Dense fog along a busy highway was blamed for a massive pileup of as many as 100 cars, killing two people and injuring dozens, the California Highway Patrol said."

Most drivers in California think that they are Mario Andretti, until it comes time to ''lock em up''.

They drive too close, and too fast.

That was probably the the primary reason for this big pileup.

[mediapreachr]

South California-aka North Mexico District,just a week ago they had the big tunnel fire-I believe 6 or 7 big rigs involved.They just left those mexican trucks go through,you should see more of this happening.

[hazelknows]

with fires, mud slides, earthquakes, traffic accidents, etc.. the insurance in California must be alot of coin. sounds like the nations rates will be going up.

[jetranger7]

Ya, they had a badd one in 1998 too, out there, I was driving a tractor trailer, and you couldn''t see 2 feet in front of you either at 11:00pm that night, so, thats when I decided to find me a parking lot for the rest of the evening. Glad I did, they ended up having a 150-car plie up, at about 11:15 pm that evening right where I was too, glad I was parked in a parking lot !!