Dense fog combined with smoke from nearby fires caused very poor visibility for motorists in the US state of Louisiana on Monday.
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It caused a huge traffic accident in which 158 vehicles were involved, the local police said in a statement on Tuesday night Norwegian time.
At least seven people have lost their lives in the accident, which happened on the I-55 highway in Louisiana on Monday morning local time. At least 25 people are injured, writes AP.
– It was “Boom”. “Boom”. All you heard was crashing for at least 30 minutes, 46-year-old Clarencia Patterson Reed told the newspaper The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate.
She ended up in the middle of the chaos of cars, she says. When she tried to stop, she was hit from behind and from the side by at least two other cars. Reed says that she managed to get out, but that the wife got stuck in the car and suffered injuries to her leg.
According to AP, the authorities have sent several school buses to the crash area to retrieve those involved.
Governor John Bel Edwards warns other motorists which will travel on the roads in the state, and at the same time asks people to register as blood donors after the accident.
– The combination of smoke from forest fires and dense fog is dangerous, and I would encourage everyone who lives in the affected areas to be very careful when they go out to travel, he writes on X, formerly Twitter.
‘Super fog’ causes 158-vehicle pile-up with at least 7 dead in south Louisiana: officials
Reed was driving with her wife and niece to Manchac when she found herself in the middle of one of the multi-car pile-ups. She said she spotted people down the road signaling for her to stop, but when she pumped the brakes she was struck from behind and on the side by two other vehicles.
She was largely unscathed and was able to wiggle her way out of her car, but her wife was pinned inside with an injury to her leg and side, she told the local paper.
Another driver told the outlet that a pickup truck struck his vehicle “and took me for a ride” after he hit the brakes to slow down.
Christopher Coll, 41, had to kick open his passenger door to crawl out of his crushed car. Once outside, he ran to help others stuck inside their vehicles and pulled one person out through their car window, he said.
Many of the vehicles caught fire — adding more dark smoke to the superfog sky — and complicating rescue efforts. At least one car went over the side of the raised roadway into the water of lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas, but the driver escaped unharmed, according to state police.
The wreck stopped traffic in both directions on I-55 for miles and authorities brought in school buses to retrieve stranded motorists.
As the sun set, the smell of smoke still hung in the air as dozens and dozens of scorched cars remained piled on top of one another on the interstate roadbed where firefighters searched for bodies and any stranded survivors.
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unreal 168 car crash in louisana
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