Two Dead, Nine Injured In 35-Vehicle Pileup In California
- Two people were killed and nine others were hospitalized in a 35-vehicle pileup on Interstate 5 in Bakersfield, California.
- The crash happened at around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday on the southbound lanes.
- The pileup includes 17 cars and 18 big rigs.
Source:Youtube/KGET News
Reasons For The 35-Vehicle Pileup, There’s A Chance That The Fog Contributed.
The Pileup occurred during Foggy conditions, In which visibility was down to about 3 meters, The California Department of Transportation
According to Jim Calhoun of the Kern County Fire Department, visibility was only around ten feet when firefighters arrived at the "chaotic" scene, as KGET reported.
Until Sunday Morning at about 11:00 a.m., The Southbound I-5 lanes in the area are closed due to investigation and clean-up.
It is advised that campers and trailer owners avoid traveling in the Grapevine area due to a high wind alert, according to Caltrans. Up until 10 a.m. on Sunday, there is a winter weather advisory in place according to the National Weather Service, which warns that "strong winds" and "patchy blowing snow" might pose a risk to cars in the mountains of Kern County. The weather agency advised drivers to "slow down and use caution."
Yasenis Cruz, one of the drivers involved in the collision, said to the local TV station KBAK that she pulled over after seeing a crash alert on her GPS. The car behind her struck her two minutes later, and "that's when everything just happened fast."
Everyone just started screaming for help and there were little kids as well crying, Cruz said.
A "plume of natural gas" left injured people and bystanders in the wake of "compressed natural gas, saddle tanks on the side of some of the big rigs that were ruptured," Calhoun told the station. The gas crisis had to be handled first, and everyone had to be evacuated from the vicinity.
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