(BrightPress.org) – Eight people are dead and dozens more injured after a superfog in Louisiana reduced visibility on I-55 to near zero triggering a 150+ car pileup. A superfog is the technical term for the result of wildfire smoke combined with natural fog. It has historically been associated with massive pileups when one occurs on a major highway.
The crash happened shortly before 9 a.m. on I-55 northwest of New Orleans on Monday, October 23rd. As of Tuesday night, the death toll had risen. It was unclear if the man died from his injuries or was a newly discovered casualty of the original crash. Police are urging locals who have missing family to contact them.
Louisiana State Police indicated over 25 people were taken to hospitals for injuries varying from minor to critical. Many more had taken themselves to get medical attention.
The pictures and drone footage of the wreck show dozens of charred, burnt-out cars. A pickup truck lies on its side in the waterway beneath the bridge, demonstrating the force with which some of these vehicles collided.
The National Weather Service said that the fog was slowly dissipating, but still impacting the area, complicating rescue and clearance efforts as of early Monday morning. The highway was shut down until conditions improved and the road could be cleared. The area was cleared of the fog thanks to the wind blowing through the area and clearing out the smoke by Monday afternoon.
Tyler Stanfield is a meteorologist with the New Orleans National Weather Service. He called the situation a “perfect storm.” Superfogs typically happen twice a year in the area when marsh fire smoke combines with typical fog to blanket an area in thick white mist. The fog formed around 3 a.m. Monday morning and persisted until later that afternoon.
State Police explained that a section of the pileup had caught fire and that a large tanker truck was removed from the area due to it hauling unspecified “hazardous liquid.”
Footage of the wreck was available from AccuWeather on X (Twitter). It shows dozens of smashed, flipped, and crushed cars surrounded by a thick veil of dense white fog.
Copyright 2023, BrightPress.org
