Associated Press
RINGGOLD, Ga. – Four people were killed on a foggy interstate highway Thursday in a 125-vehicle pileup that left a half-mile trail of mangled cars and trucks, authorities said.
Thirty-nine people were reported injured, 15 of them seriously.
“I heard a big truck screeching. I heard a crash. I heard another crash and then another crash. I just heard crash after crash. I heard people screaming,” said Debbie Grant, who lives near Interstate 75 in northwestern Georgia, close to the Tennessee line.
The accident happened when a southbound tractor-trailer crossed the median and slammed into several northbound vehicles. Dozens of other drivers plowed into the pile. It wasn’t clear why the truck jumped the median, the state patrol said.
“Weather conditions and excessive speed obviously became a deadly combination,” patrol spokesman Jim Shuler said.
The wrecks involved vehicles in all lanes of the interstate, though the four fatalities were in the northbound lanes. Thousands of commuters use I-75 to reach Chattanooga from their northwest Georgia homes.
“It was so foggy I don’t have a clue what happened. I’m alive for some reason. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t see what was going on,” said Barbara Truett, who nearly hit a pickup truck.
The wreck occurred about 40 miles from the site of a 1990 pileup in Tennessee that killed 12 people. It prompted Tennessee officials to install a fog detection system on the highway that uses overhead warning signs to recommend drivers lower their speed and use alternate routes.
Thursday’s accident happened on a stretch of highway that did not have fog lights.
Many vehicles were still entangled by afternoon and two bodies remained trapped in the wreckage. The walking injured were taken to a fire station by school bus.
Some southbound lanes were reopened Thursday afternoon, but the northbound lanes would likely be closed until early today.
No charges were planned against any drivers. “It did not appear that there was any fault other than fog,” Sheriff Phil Summers said.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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