‘Super fog’ causes 158-vehicle pile-up with at least 7 dead in south Louisiana: officials

At least seven people were killed and dozens injured Monday when 158 vehicles crashed during “superfog” conditions on a Louisiana expressway, authorities said.

Additional motorists could be discovered dead as first responders sift through the burnt-out and mangled cars involved in a series of pile-ups in both directions on Interstate 55, Louisiana State Police said.

The exact number of injured is not known but at least 25 people were rushed to area hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to critical. 

Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a call for blood donors to replenish supplies following the crashes. 

Officials said the devastation may have been caused by superfog — a combination of smoke from nearby marsh fires and thick fog — that severely limited visibility on the roadway. 

One survivor said she heard the sound of metal compacting and tires popping as cars slammed into one another for at least a half-hour straight. 

“It was ‘Boom. Boom.’ All you kept hearing was crashing for at least 30 minutes,” Clarencia Patterson Reed told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate.

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. 

A tanker truck carrying hazardous liquid was being off-loaded from the crash site. 

None of the dead had been publicly identified Monday night as state troopers were still working to notify families. 

State troopers are investigating the exact causes of the different crashes and have asked Louisiana’s transportation department to conduct an inspection of the bridge part of I-55, where many of the pile-ups occurred.