Seven killed, dozens hurt when ‘superfog’ causes fiery pileup on Louisiana bridge, cops say
UPDATE: The death toll has risen to at least seven, with dozens more injured, after a massive pileup occurred along Interstate 55 west of New Orleans on Monday, Oct. 23.
The original story is below.
Thick fog caused a massive fatal car pileup that also left around 100 people stranded on a Louisiana bridge, police say.
A cluster of car crashes along Interstate 55 in both lanes shut down traffic west of New Orleans on Monday, Oct. 23, according to a traffic update from Louisiana State Police. Two people were killed in the pileup, St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre told WDSU, and 30 others were injured.
Cars weren’t the only vehicles involved in the crash, according to local media outlets. Three 18-wheeler trucks crashed as well, WDSU reports, two of which burst into flames.
To put out fires caused in the accident, Louisiana firefighters had to extend their firetruck ladder from a nearby embankment over the water, as shown in video from Fox 8, to reach a tanker that had caught on fire.
One vehicle drove off the side of the bridge, police said as reported by WWL-TV, but the driver was rescued. Emergency crews were also on the scene to clean up “extensive debris,” according to state police.
While state police said they were investigating “the exact causes of the crashes,” dense fog conditions were a major contributor to the deadly bridge pileup. A weather phenomenon known as “superfog” was “heavily impacting I-55” Monday morning, according to a warning from the National Weather Service New Orleans on X, previously known as Twitter.
Super fog happens when smoke and moisture in the air mix together, according to the National Weather Service. In super fog conditions, visibility can worsen to less than 10 feet, which makes it “very dangerous when present over highways.”
In Louisiana, marsh fires made conditions ripe for super fog, according to the NWS post on X.
The regional NWS predicts that conditions are “borderline” for super fog conditions to continue over the next few days, according to its website. A dense fog advisory was issued for a large part of Louisiana including New Orleans and Baton Rouge as of 4:46 p.m. on Oct. 23.
Several videos were posted to social media platforms from local media outlets and drivers stuck on the bridge, showing the deadly pileup and the damage it caused.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development will conduct bridge inspections to assess damage from the pileup, according to the state police.
This story was originally published October 23, 2023 at 7:08 PM.
