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.
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Pile-ups generally occur in low-visibility conditions as drivers on freeways are sometimes caught out by driving too close to the vehicle in front and not adjusting to the road conditions.
Due to the high traffic speeds on the road, if one car develops a problem and suddenly halts, those behind it cannot stop in time and may hit it. Considering that these roads often have high traffic volumes, more cars are forced into braking and skidding, darting into other lanes and in front of oncoming traffic and so more vehicles become involved, creating a chain reaction effect.
Determining the cause of such accidents is difficult for investigators and it is often impossible to tell if negligence caused the crash.
Multiple-vehicle collisions are particularly deadly as the mass of crumpled vehicles makes escape for survivors difficult. Even if a survivor is able to exit their vehicle, another car may strike them. A fire in one part of the accident can quickly spread via spilled gasoline and cover the entire crash area. Individual vehicles in a multiple-vehicle collision are often hit multiple times at high speed, increasing the risk of injury to passengers who may have survived the first impact. Collisions after the initial collision may occur from the side where the car is more vulnerable. Multiple-vehicle collisions can also overrun local firefighting, ambulance, and police services making speedy 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 most serious, as there is little means to escape the tunnel and the confined heat may damage the structure of the tunnel.
| Date | Killed | Injured | Vehicles | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 December 1990 | 12 | 42 | 99 | 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 | 1 | 64 | 150 | A15 Motorway near Ochten, Netherlands, due to fog, 150 vehicles, 1 death, 64 injuries.[2] |
| 2 December 1994 | 67 | 127 | 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 | 11 | 90 | 200 | Jubilee Parkway in Mobile, Alabama, United States, due to fog, 200 vehicles, 1 death, 90 injuries.[4] |
| 27 February 1996 | 10 | 80 | 200 | E17 motorway near Nazareth, Belgium, due to fog.[5] |
| 10 March 1997 | 3 | 60 | 160 | M42 motorway in the United Kingdom, due to fog – 160 vehicles involved, 3 deaths, 60 injuries.[6][7] |
| 31 December 1998 | 1 | 39 | 100 | 100 cars crashed on an ice-slicked section of Interstate-75 in central Michigan, killing one and injuring 39.[8] |
| 3 September 1999 | 8 | 33 | 87 | 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.[9][10] |
| February 2001 | 131 | Interstate 95 in Stafford County, Virginia, United States, 131 vehicles plus two others nearby totaling 80 more, due to a snowstorm whiteout.[11] | ||
| March 2002 | 125 | Interstate 75 in Catoosa County, Georgia, United States, due to one-time sudden fog, about 125 vehicles [12] | ||
| 3 November 2002 | 0 | 41 | 216 | Interstate 710 in Los Angeles County, California, United States, around 200 vehicles, due to dense fog.[13] |
| 12 January 2005 | 2 | 35 | 10 | Interstate 96 in Ingham County, Michigan, United States, around 200 vehicles, due to dense fog leaving 2 dead and 35 injured.[14][15] |
| 17 March 2005 | 3 | 60 | 300 | 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.[16] |
| 5 November 2007 | 2 | dozens | 100 | 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.[17] |
| 6 January 2008 | 2 | 100 | Two people are killed as 100 cars pile up on Interstate 90 near Madison, Wisconsin.[18] | |
| 9 January 2008 | 4 | 38 | 70 | 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.[19] |
| 20 January 2008 | 100 | More than 100 vehicles crashed into each other on Highway 400 near Toronto due to bad weather conditions.[20] | ||
| 11 March 2008 | 3 | 277 | 60 | 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.[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] |
| 20 March 2008 | 0 | 33 | 231 | 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.[29][30][31][32][33][34][35] |
| 25 March 2008 | 1 | 6 | 60 | A near 60 vehicle pile-up in heavy snow on Austria's main east-west highway causes one death with six injuries.[36] |
| 11 January 2009 | 50+ | "More than 50 cars..." in Derry, New Hampshire[37] | ||
| 19 January 2009 | 35 | A 35-car pileup occurs during a snowstorm on Interstate 70 in Myersville, Maryland. | ||
| 19 July 2009 | Dozens | 259 | 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.[38] | |
| 13 December 2009 | 52 | 56 | 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.[39] | |
| 23 December 2009 | 36 | 43 | M27 motorway 20 vehicles 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 severe black ice, freezing fog and deep snow. 36 people injured. | |
| 10 February 2010 | 7 | 50 | Near Williamsburg, Virginia, whiteout conditions during the morning around 9:00 am EST 10 February led to a fifty-car pileup on a stretch of westbound I-64. The accident took hours to clear, and seven people suffered minor injuries requiring hospitalization.[40] | |
| 14 February 2010 | 13 | 100+ | In the Kansas City area, several pileups involving 100+[41] vehicles, including two Greyhound buses[42] was caused by whiteout conditions. The largest pileup, involving 40 vehicles along I-70 and K-7 near the city of Bonner Springs, Kansas.[41][42][43] No fatalities or critical injuries were reported. The accident closed I-70 for several hours so emergency workers and crews could clean up the area. The same day, also in the Kansas City metro area, a separate pileup caused by whiteout conditions, involving at least 20 vehicles closed parts of I-35 near 87th Street.[42] No fatalities or serious injuries were reported there as well.[42] The accident sent 13 people to area hospitals.[43] | |
| 15 September 2011 | 1 | several | 100 | Rodovia dos Imigrantes at São Paulo, Brazil. around 100 vehicles involved in an accident due to heavy fog. Several injuries and one person dead. [44] |
| 4 November 2011 | 7 | 51 | 34 | Near Taunton, Somerset, England. 34 vehicles involved in an accident near Junction 25 on the M5 motorway near Taunton due to fog and heavy rain. 7 confirmed deaths currently reported and 51 injured. [45] |
| 1 December 2011 | 1 | 16-18 | 176 | Tennessee State Route 386 (Vietnam Veterans Boulevard) and Saundersville Road near Hendersonville in Sumner County, Tennessee, United States, north of Nashville, due to "heavy, heavy fog"; three separate chain-reaction crashes involving 176 vehicles; 1 death and 16-18 injuries. A fog advisory was not in effect for the area at the time of the crashes. [46][47][48][49] |
| 3 December 2011 | 1 | 14 | 134 | Istanbul Trans European Motorway 134 cars involved with 1 dead, 14 injured, due to heavy fog and slippery road. |
Multiple vehicle collisions can occur in the restricted courses used in motorsports as well, most commonly after a green flag (on road courses) being waved following a warm-up lap during the start of the race. Reporters and fans apply subjective guidelines as to what threshold needs to be crossed before a simple on-track incident can be described as such. NASCAR fans, for example, talk about 'The Big One', where many cars can be involved in a wreck while running close together.