Fog, I-75 Pileup, south of Gainesville, FL– 11

lornajarrettblanchard January 11, 2012

— 11 FL Hwy Patrol. DHSMV-FHP Interstate 75 Incident Agency Response. 8-10-2012.

— 11 WKMG, Orlando, FL. “FHP identifies 11^th victim in fatal I-75 crash.” 1-30-2012.

— 10 Fox News. “At least 10 dead in crashes on Florida highway amid heavy smoke.” 1-29-2012

— 10 Reuters. “Florida highway smashes kill 10 people.” 1-29-2012.

— 10 USA Today. “Cause sought for deadly Fla. Highway pileup.” 1-30-2012.

FL Hwy Patrol: “Executive Summary. Paynes Prairie Incident.

“At approximately 4:00 AM on Sunday, January 29, 2012, a series of multiple-vehicle collisions

occurred within a localized area of smoke-induced low visibility on Interstate 75 in the area of Paynes Prairie south of Gainesville. Crashes occurred in both the northbound and southbound lanes involving 24 vehicles in 6 crashes that resulted in 11 fatalities and 46 known and reported injuries…. [p.1]

“The collision sequence initiated when lead vehicles entered dense smoke and reportedly slowed to a near stop or actually did stop in the travel lanes, and consequently were struck. As subsequent vehicles entered the dense smoke, some drivers slowed their vehicles drastically as they entered while others did not. Additional collisions occurred as vehicles drove into the smoke and wreckage area at varying speeds….” (p. 4 of FL Highway Patrol. DHSMV-FHP Interstate 75 Incident Agency Response. FHP, Dept, of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, 8-10-2012.)

Fox News, Jan 29: “Gainesville, Fla. — The Florida Highway Patrol says 10 people have died in a series of early-morning crashes on a dark highway that was shrouded in haze and smoke. Officials say at least 18 were injured in crashes on both sides of Interstate 75 south of Gainesville shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday.

“Authorities are trying to determine what caused the pileup. The highway had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire that may have been intentionally set. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved.

“Dr. Timothy Flynn, chief medical officer for Shands Healthcare, says three of the six patients being treated in the trauma center needed surgery. Four patients remain in the hospital’s emergency room, and eight people have been treated and released.

“Photographs of the scene revealed a gruesome aftermath, with twisted, burned-out vehicles scattered across the pavement and smoke still rising above the wreckage. Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks. Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw one tractor-trailer that was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. Bodies were still visible inside a burned-out Grand Prix. The rubber on the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts. State police estimated that wreckage was strewn for nearly a mile in both directions.

“Donna Henry was driving south at 3:45 a.m. when she encountered the dense smoke. “We just hit it, and you couldn’t see anything,” Henry told The Gainesville Sun. She was driving with friends back home to Palm Bay. Her car struck a guardrail and ended up sideways in the outside lane. She pulled off the highway and called 911 while listening to the sound of the other crashes on both sides of the busy road. “You heard like 15 times somebody hit, from this side and that, north and south. It was bad.”

“All six lanes of the interstate — which runs virtually the entire length of Florida — remained closed at midday as investigators surveyed the site and firefighters sprayed foam on the wreckage to put out the last of the fires. At least 18 people were hurt.

“At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of the fog and smoke, which came from a fire in the Paynes Prairie area south of Gainesville. The road was reopened when visibility improved. Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Patrick Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash….” (Fox News. “At least 10 dead in crashes on Florida highway amid heavy smoke.” 1-29-2012.)

USA Today (AP), Jan 30: “Gainesville, Fla. (AP) — Authorities in Florida were trying to determine Monday what caused the horrific pileup on Interstate 75 south of Gainesville, where a long line of cars and trucks collided one after another on a dark highway so shrouded in haze and smoke that drivers were blinded.

“At least 10 were killed in the early Sunday pileup and another 18 were hospitalized.

“All lanes of I-75 reopened late Sunday, but authorities closed the highway again early Monday due to poor visibility caused by fog and smoke….

“The interstate had been closed for a time before the accidents because of a mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire that may have been intentionally set. The decision to reopen it early Sunday will certainly be a focus of investigators, as will the question of how the fire may have started.

“The pileups happened around 3:45 a.m. Sunday on both sides of I-75. When rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans because the poor visibility made it difficult to find victims in wreckage that was strewn for nearly a mile. At least a dozen cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flames….

“At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of fog and smoke. The road was reopened when visibility improved, police said. Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash….” (USA Today. “Cause sought for deadly Fla. Highway pileup.” 1-30-2012.)

WKMG, Jan 30: “Gainesville, Fla. — The Florida Highway Patrol says the body of an eleventh person has been found in a pickup truck days after a deadly pileup on Interstate 75. FHP says the Alachua County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Tuesday that a third victim was inside a Dodge pickup truck that crashed into a tractor trailer as it traveled south early Sunday. The driver and another passenger in that vehicle have still not been identified.

“Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Pat Riordan said that 27-year-old Christie Diana Nguyen, of Gainesville, was among the 10 deaths from the pileup on Interstate 75. She was a passenger in a car that crashed.

“Five members of a Kennesaw, Ga., church that caters to the local Brazilian community also died in the crash, officials said. Church Pastor Jose Carmo Jr. 43; his wife, Adrianna, 39; and their daughter, Leticia, 17, died in the crash. Another pastor at the church, Bobby Curtis, tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that some church members are worried about immigration issues surrounding a survivor of the crash, 15-year-old Lidiane Carmo, because she’s not in the U.S. legally. The van’s driver, Carmo’s brother Edson Carmo, 38, and his brother’s girlfriend, Roselia DeSilva, 41, also died.

“26-year-old Jason Lee Raikes of Richmond, Va. was the seventh fatality and Vontavia Robinson, 22, of Williston, was also killed, according to FHP.

“Seven people are still in the hospital as of Tuesday.

“Meanwhile, FHP held a press conference Monday to discuss the visibility issue that led to a three-vehicle crash, just hours before a series of pileups killed 10 people on the same stretch of Interstate 75. FHP said they shut down the road around 12:15 a.m. Sunday after an accident.

“According to the report released Monday, heavy smoke and fog resulted in low visibility late Saturday along I-75 south of Gainesville. About 11:55 p.m. Saturday, a tractor-trailer hit a Toyota in the northbound lanes. A Lexus then hit the back of the truck. Authorities say a passenger in the Lexus was sent to the hospital in serious condition.

“The Highway Patrol closed I-75 and nearby U.S. 441 a short time later, due to worsening road conditions. But the highway was then reopened early Sunday and a series of pileups began around 3:45 a.m., some of them fatal.

“FHP said at the conference troopers had monitored the road for about three hours and reopened the road just after 3:30 a.m. Officials said within the 30 minutes before the fatal pileup the visibility changed dramatically and they stand by their decision.

“FHP said even if there was dash cam video of the conditions as officers patrolled, it wouldn’t be released publicly. “If the camera had been activated, some of the blue lights there may be photos,” Riordan said. “But I will not release something like that.”

“When asked how many troopers were monitoring the roads, Riordan said they didn’t know because there were a lot of different agencies working with FHP, but FHP was nearby when the crash occurred. FDLE will be looking into where exactly troopers were in that 45-minute window.

“According to the FHP report, heavy smoke in the area from a 64 acre brush fire in an adjacent prairie caused the reduced visibility, which in turn caused the crash. FHP is still working to figure out what happened on the northbound lanes of I-75….” (WKMG, Orlando, FL. “FHP identifies 11^th victim in fatal I-75 crash.” 1-30-2012.)

Sources

Florida Highway Patrol. DHSMV-FHP Interstate 75 Incident Agency Response. FHP, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, 8-10-2012, 31 pages. Accessed 6-5-2015 at: http://www.flhsmv.gov/fhp/pdf/I75IncidentResponseReport.pdf

Fox News. “At least 10 dead in crashes on Florida highway amid heavy smoke.” 1-29-2012. At: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/29/at-least-dead-in-crashes-on-florida-highway-amid-heavy-smoke/?test=latestnews

USA Today. “Cause sought for deadly Fla. Highway pileup.” 1-30-2012. Accessed at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-01-30/florida-highway-deadly-crash/52882028/1

WKMG, Orlando, FL. “FHP identifies 11^th victim in fatal I-75 crash.” 1-30-2012. Accessed at: http://www.clickorlando.com/FHP-identifies-11th-victim-in-fatal-I-75-crash/-/1637238/8563434/-/12vgf9qz/-/index.html