Multiple-vehicle collision

A multi-vehicle collision (colloquially known as a pile-up) is a road traffic accident involving many vehicles. Generally occurring on high capacity and high speed routes such as freeways, they are one of the deadliest forms of traffic accidents. The most disastrous pile-ups have involved more than a hundred vehicles.

Causes

Pile-ups generally occur in low-visibility conditions, like rain or fog. In such conditions drivers on freeways often drive closer together than they should.

Due to the high traffic speeds of the route, if one car develops a problem, those behind it cannot stop in time and may hit it. As cars are forced into other lanes and oncoming traffic, more vehicles become involved, considering that these roads often have high traffic volumes.

Determining the cause of such accidents is difficult for investigators and it is often impossible to tell if negligence caused the crash.

Effects

They are particularly deadly as the solid mass of crumpled vehicles makes escape difficult. A fire in one part of the accident can quickly spread to spilled fuel and cover the entire crash area. Vehicles in a pile up are often hit multiple times, often at high speed, increasing risk of injury to the passenger. There have been cases wherein one car be hit more than once due to the bouncing effect. Moreover cars are often spun during an accident and are subsequently hit from the side, increasing risk of injury or death. Some vehicle occupants choose to get out of their vehicles during a pile up, making them vulnerable to oncoming vehicles. Pile-ups can also overburden local firefighting, ambulance, and police services making quick rescues more difficult.

The large scale of these accidents can close important routes for several days. The destruction and intense heat of fires can also damage roadways, particularly by melting and burning the asphalt. Bridge structures can also be weakened by the heat. A pileup inside a tunnel is by far the worst, as there is little means for escape in older ones, and the unvented heat may even cause the concrete lining to come apart.

Major pileups

• 11 December 1990: Interstate 75 in Calhoun, Tennessee, United States, between Chattanooga and Knoxville near the Hiwassee River, due to very heavy fog; fiery crash involved 99 vehicles; 12 deaths and 42 injuries. A fog warning system has since been installed, and the highway patrol enforces speed limits aggressively.^[1]
• October 1991: A15 Motorway near Ochten, Netherlands, due to fog, 150 vehicles, 1 death, 64 injuries.^[2]
• 2 December 1994: Interstate 35 in San Antonio, Texas, United States, 127 car pile-up caused by blinding glare and rain-slicked roads, 67 injuries.^[3]
• 20 March 1995: Jubilee Parkway in Mobile, Alabama, United States, due to fog, 200 vehicles, 1 death, 90 injuries.^[4]
• 10 March 1997: M42 motorway in the United Kingdom, due to fog - 160 vehicles involved, 3 deaths, 60 injuries.^[5][6]
• 31 December 1998: 100 cars crashed on an ice-slicked section of Interstate-75 in central Michigan, killing one and injuring 39.^[7]
• 3 September 1999: Highway 401 in Essex County, Ontario, Canada, just east of Windsor. Very dense fog and tailgating causes an 87-vehicle pile-up, killing 8, and injuring 33 more.^[8][9]
• February 2001: Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia, United States, 131 vehicles plus two others nearby totaling 80 more, due to a snowstorm whiteout.^[10]
• March 2002: Interstate 75 in Catoosa County, Georgia, United States, due to one-time sudden fog, about 125 vehicles ^[11]
• 12 January 2005: Interstate 96 in Ingham County, Michigan, United States, around 200 vehicles, due to dense fog leaving 2 dead and 35 injured.^[12][13]
• 17 March 2005: near Helsinki, Finland, around 300 cars crashed on highways leading to the capital, 3 deaths and 60 injuries. Visibility was very poor due to heavy snowfall and a week of clear weather had given drivers a false impression of safety.^[14]
• 5 November 2007: Highway 99 south of Fresno, California, United States, due to the tule fog that occurs frequently in fall and winter; involved more than 100 vehicles, killed at least 2 and injured dozens of others.^[15]
• 6 January 2008: Two people are killed as 100 cars pile up on Interstate 90 near Madison, Wisconsin. ^[16]
• 9 January 2008: Four people were killed and as many as 38 injured in a major pileup on Interstate 4 in north central Florida involving 70 vehicles, as fog mixed with smoke from a controlled fire that reached out-of-control proportions combined to make it almost impossible for motorists to see.^[17]
• 20 January 2008: More than 100 vehicles crashed into each other on Highway 400 near Toronto due to bad weather conditions.^[18]
• March 11, 2008: Around 6.39am UAE time a series of vehicle crashes occurred, involving cars, SUVs, buses and trucks, because of heavy fog on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway near Ghantoot, Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, leading to the worst ever crash and multi-vehicle pileup in the country’s history. According to Dubai based Gulf News and Reuters the incident killed 3 people and injured 277, involving 60 vehicles from which 25 caught fire according to Abu Dhabi Police.^{[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]}
• 20 March 2008: 231 vehicles round about number of foci crashed at highway D1 in Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. About 30 people were injured, 3 of them seriously. Nobody was killed.^{[27][28][29][30][31][32][33]}
• 25 March 2008: A near 60 vehicle pile-up in heavy snow on Austria's main east-west highway causes one death with six injuries.^[34]
• 11 January 2009: "More than 50 cars..." in Derry, NH^[35]
• 19 January 2009: A 35-car pileup occurs during a snowstorm on Interstate 70 in Myersville, Maryland.
• 19 July 2009: Dozens of people injured, 10 critically, when 259 vehicles were involved in a pile-up due to heavy rain on the German Autobahn A2 near Braunschweig in Lower Saxony.^[36]
• 13 December 2009: 56 cars involved in a pile-up on Route 110 in Shelton, Connecticut due to black ice resulting in 46 injuries and six hospitalizations, but no deaths or life-threatening injuries. ^[37]
• 23 December 2009: M27 Motorway 20 vechials involved in a pile up westbound at Rownhams services and another 23 eastbound between J7 for Hedge End and Botley and J8 for Bursoldon and Netley due to servere black ice, freezing fog and deep snow. 36 people injurjed.

In popular culture

Both of the Blues Brothers movies feature a massive pileup of police cars.

In the film Final Destination 2, there is a pileup on Route 23 at the beginning of the film.

Burnout 2: Point Of Impact,Burnout 3:Takedown and Burnout Revenge crash modes requires player to create a massive pile-up as possible to earn medals.

Pileups occur as a gag in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

References