Polk Sheriff On Scene At I-4: 'Worst You've Ever Seen'

TBO Blog

POLK CITY - Smoke from a bush fire mixed with early morning fog was blamed for a 50-vehicle pileup in Polk County early this morning that Sheriff Grady Judd called "the worst you've ever seen."

Three people were killed and others with serious injuries were rushed to area hospitals. A deputy responding to the initial reports of smoke, fog and wrecks was injured when a vehicle slammed into the back of his patrol car, Judd said.

Judd said the deputy, whom he didn't identify, continued to help injured people. The deputy was not seriously injured.

At a late morning news conference, Judd said the deputy was distraught.

"He said, 'I did all I could. I watched a man burn to death today, and I heard others screaming and hollering and crying,' " Judd said. "I told him, 'You're a great deputy, but you're not God. You put your life on the line to protect the folks that you could.' "

By 9 a.m., as the fog dissipated, deputies, Florida Highway Patrol troopers and emergency workers still were finding wrecked vehicles and injured people, Judd said.

The deadly mix of fog and smoke from the brush fire is being blamed for the chain-reaction pileup that began sometime after 4 a.m. Judd said there were five to 10 separate crash scenes.

Six highway patrol traffic homicide investigators were busy trying to document what happened.

At least 50 vehicles were affected - some going east, some west - including about 20 tractor-trailers and tankers, authorities said. Tankers have overturned, and at least one caught fire, sparking a blaze that spread to at least a dozen other vehicles.

Up to 100 people were involved overall, Judd said.

By 11 a.m., emergency crews had extricated the last of the trapped victims, a man in his car that was wedged beneath a truck, authorities said.

The crash victims who could walk were marched to a rest area about one-quarter mile west of the crash site.

Drivers were urged to use alternate routes.

"Don't try don't think about the interstate today," Judd said. "It's an incredible investigative scene, and it's going to take a long time to get through this. It would not be wise ... to think you could travel it from Tampa to Orlando.

Florida Highway Patrol Maj. Tom Knight said troopers would be trying to clear the road for traffic by midafternoon, but anyone planning a trip should take another route.

"Don't drive I-4 in this area," he said.

Despite what witnesses said about the visibility, troopers patrolling the area after midnight did not think conditions warranted closing the road, Knight said.

Eyewitness Accounts

Dick White, who lives in Polk City near County Road 557A and I-4, heard the crashes.

"We woke up this morning to the sound of muffled explosions. It sounded like bombs going off in the interstate. You don't hear any tires squealing; you just hear boom, boom, boom," the 64-year-old said. "They don't even see each other or have time to hit the brakes."

He said he saw a school bus on C.R. 557A going about 5 mph. "Visibility is less than a car length," he said. "It's like looking at the inside of a marshmallow."

Riding home to Tampa about 5:30 a.m. after working all night in Orlando, John Popovich III saw a few puffs of smoke on the highway but nothing that concerned him. There was no warning of what was ahead.

Suddenly "we hit the wall of smoke," said Popovich, 23, who was a passenger in a car driven by a colleague, Mark Beckstrom.

A car 15 feet in front of them disappeared into the fog, and Popovich told Beckstrom to pull off the highway so they wouldn't be hit, he said. Popovich said he recently was in two car accidents and was terrified of driving on the highway.

"As soon as we slowed down and pulled over, it was like, bang, bang," Popovich said. There were two crashes behind them. "It sounded like a pretty big pileup." And then silence.

With their flashers on, Popovich and Beckstrom pulled up a little more, called 911 and then sat and waited amid the smoke, unable to see or hear anything else. They put some water on some extra shirts they were carrying and put them to their faces to help their breathing.

About 45 minutes to an hour later, police and emergency crews arrived, Popovich said. "I did see a lot of police out there," he said. "They checked up on us."

It took Popovich five hours to get out of the mess. Five hours of mostly waiting and trying not to breathe the smoke. He said he was nursing a sore throat and hoped to get some sleep before returning to work tonight.

Robert Ellison was westbound on I-4 about 6 a.m. when he narrowly avoided a collision.

"Everything came to a halt," he said. "You can't see your hand in front of your face."

Police told Ellison and other motorists to move to an area away from the road. He and others had tried to help some of the accident victims, including one person pinned in a car.

"There was no indication of anything. Then you couldn't see five feet," Ellison said.

Hospitals Slammed

Lakeland Regional Medical Center has mobilized several staff members as part of its emergency preparedness plan, which was enacted as soon as the hospital learned of the wrecks, said hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Olivier.

The hospital initially received seven patients, with two in transit and likely in the hospital by now, Olivier said. Two of the original seven were in critical condition, Olivier said, and the others were being treated but were not in critical condition.

Staff being mobilized was not limited to doctors and nurses, Olivier said. "We're talking linens, food service, laboratory, all the behind the scenes support," she said.

She didn't have any specific numbers. "At this point, it's just keep calling them in as you need them," she said.

The hospital also has established a separate triage area for the trauma victims in the emergency room and is keeping in touch with county emergency personnel, Olivier said. The hospital is taking steps to monitor bed capacity, considering what rooms can be cleaned up quickly and made available, she said.

Paramedics continued to tending to the injured until midmorning at the sites of the crashes, which were centered about one-half mile west of Polk County Road 557.

Road Work

Troopers shut down I-4 in both directions between the Polk Parkway, also known as State Road 570, and U.S. 27 in Haines City

By 10 a.m., troopers had begun clearing the highway of vehicles that were drivable.

Eastbound I-4 traffic was backed up 10 to 15 miles.

Fire and rescue crews from surrounding counties, including Orange, Osceola, Lake and Hillsborough counties swarmed into the area to help treat and transport victims.

The Weather Factor

A lack of wind allowed the smoke and fog to linger until about 9 a.m., when the conditions cleared and visibility returned.

Earlier, the combination of smoke and fog caused the visibility to drop to a car length or so. "The two combined are always worse," said National Weather Service meteorologist Ernie Jillison.

Particles in the smoke give condensing water something to cling to and create something thicker than simple fog or smoke.

For a while, the smoke kept the sun from warming the ground and dispersing the fog, he said, and the lack of wind prevented the air from mixing and thinning the mixture.

Warm air above the ground also will keep the fog and smoke trapped.

The fog over I-4 was fairly localized.

The Source Of The Smoke

The brush fire responsible for the smoke started Tuesday from a controlled burn, said Chris Kintner, spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Forestry.

The state Department of Agriculture is investigating the blaze, she said.

Overnight, the fire grew to more than 300 acres about five miles east of Polk City but did not endanger any structures. It had yet to be controlled by this morning, and there was potential for the flames to move into an area of dry swamp, which would make it more difficult to extinguish.

The area burning is north of I-4 where State Road 577 becomes Old Grade Road, and it is one of the driest parts of the state.

Department of Agriculture Lt. Col Lou Leinhauser said from his Tallahassee office that he has two investigators on the case who are trying to determine the origin of the fire and who was responsible for the burn getting out of control.

It was too early in the investigation, he said, to say who if anyone was at fault.