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POSTED BY EIZ ON THURSDAY, 19 JANUARY, 2012, 7:14 AM
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By MIKE SCHNEIDER 01/30/12 08:34 AM ET AP GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- 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 ...
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GAINESVILLE
POSTED BY EIZ ON THURSDAY, 19 JANUARY, 2012, 7:14 AM
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- 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.
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.
"You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy,"
the Gainesville man said hours later. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it
looked like the end of the world."
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.
Hours later, twisted, burned-out vehicles were scattered across the pavement, with smoke still
rising from 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 bodies still inside a burned-out Grand Prix. One
tractor-trailer was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo
area. And the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.
Before Camps hit the fog bank, a friend who was driving ahead of him in a separate vehicle called
to warn of the road conditions. The friend said he had just seen an accident and urged Camps to
be careful as he approached the Paynes Prairie area, just south of Gainesville.