At least 3 dead in Fla. 50-car pileup - Truckers' Trucking Forum | Message Board

Cybergal · **^ Top** #1 01.09.2008

At least 3 dead in Fla. 50-car pileup
1/9/08

Quote:

LAKELAND, Fla. - About 50 cars crashed on a highway blanketed by fog and smoke from a brush fire in central Florida on Wednesday, and local officials said at least three people were killed.
A stretch of nearly 15 miles of Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando was closed by several accidents, including the 50-car pileup. Aerial footage showed the soupy mix of fog and smoke covering the landscape for miles and giving the sky an eerie golden color.
Polk County officials said numerous tractor trailers overturned on the roadway, including a tanker.
The poor visibility hampered rescue efforts, forcing officials to walk along the closed stretch of I-4 checking individual vehicles for injuries, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Larry Coggins said.
Polk County officials gave the figure of three dead, but Coggins said the poor conditions prevented him from confirming that.
"No one has been able to see this thing in its entirety yet," Coggins said.
Robert Ellison said he was heading east on the highway about 6 a.m. when he narrowly avoided a collision.
"Everything came to a halt," Ellison told The Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV. "You can't see your hand in front of your face."
Firefighters on Tuesday had battled a controlled burn that got out of control and charred 250 acres, producing smoke that combined with the fog to cut visibility Wednesday morning.

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Lakela...q04M.OdB9H2ocA

Cybergal · **^ Top** #2 01.09.2008

TRAFFIC ALERT: Brush fire, fog cause fatal 50-car pile-up on I-4 in Florida

1/9/08
http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stori...inFlorida.aspx

Cub · **^ Top** #3 01.09.2008

Hi there, folks. Newbie Cub here.

If you're the praying kind, then please do so because there are a heck of a lot of people down in Polk Co. and thereabouts needing it because of this damned nightmare.

The fires were so bad, three semis burned to the ground; long black smoking husks instead of long haulers. The media chopper cameras showed a dawn landscape so white with thick fog it looked as if it had snowed along I-4 between Polk Parkway and US Hwy 27, except for that long black tendril of ever-rising smoke where the glowing fires were.

Folks die on the road every day, yes, but accidents like these affect hundreds of people. We're talking families, friends, co-workers, of each person involved in each accident.

All apparently because some fool felt like driving too fast in the pre-dawn fog, according to one I overheard. Apparently, he or she caused one accident and all of the other accidents behind the first just piled up because no one could see far enough ahead of them to stop in time.

Whether you're a million-mile trucker or a newbie thinking about trucking as a career like me, please do everything you can to drive safely.

You won't believe how many folks out there will be affected when you don't.

God bless and be safe,
Cub

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