EDGEWATER, Fla. (AP) — Three people were killed in a series of crashes involving 17 vehicles early Thursday along a stretch of Interstate 95 in Florida where visibility was very low due to fog combined with smoke from prescribed burns of vegetation, officials said.
The crashes began around 1:30 a.m. south of Daytona Beach, according to Florida Highway Patrol spokesperson Kim Montes. She said there were four separate crashes involving 11 vehicles on the northbound side and one crash involving six vehicles heading southbound.
A traffic camera captured a tractor trailer consumed by flames and explosions that sent flames and smoke shooting skyward. Other video from the scene showed a car crushed under the front of a tractor trailer.
Interstate 95 is the primary north-south highway artery along the U.S. East Coast, running from South Florida to Maine.
“Fog and smoke were in the area at the time,” Montes told The Associated Press. The smoke was lingering from prescribed burns in the area, and the National Weather Service had warned on Twitter of very low visibility, issuing a dense fog advisory for coastal Volusia County near Edgewater.
For drivers traveling along the interstate at highway speeds, such conditions can be disorienting.
“It’s totally fine and then you run into a wall of that smog. You get an incredibly sharp drop in visibility,” WFTV meteorologist Brian Shields said.
Two of the dead were traveling south, while
EDGEWATER, Fla. (AP) Three people were killed in a series of crashes involving 17 vehicles early Thursday along a stretch of Interstate 95 in Florida where visibility was very low due to fog combined with smoke from prescribed burns of vegetation, officials said.
The crashes began around 1:30 a.m. south of Daytona Beach, according to Florida Highway Patrol spokesperson Kim Montes. She said there were four separate crashes involving 11 vehicles on the northbound side and one crash involving six vehicles heading southbound.
A traffic camera captured a tractor trailer consumed by flames and explosions that sent flames and smoke shooting skyward. Other video from the scene showed a car crushed under the front of a tractor trailer.
Interstate 95 is the primary north-south highway artery along the U.S. East Coast, running from South Florida to Maine.
“Fog and smoke were in the area at the time,” Montes told The Associated Press. The smoke was lingering from prescribed burns in the area, and the National Weather Service had warned on Twitter of very low visibility, issuing a dense fog advisory for coastal Volusia County near Edgewater.
For drivers traveling along the interstate at highway speeds, such conditions can be disorienting.
“It’s totally fine and then you run into a wall of that smog. You get an incredibly sharp drop in visibility,” WFTV meteorologist Brian Shields said.
Two of the dead were traveling south, while
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