Eight motorists have been seriously injured crossroads and at least 60 suffered minor injuries in a pile-up involving more than 100 cars in dense fog on the Sheppey crossing bridge in east Kent during the morning rush hour.
A statement from Kent fire and rescue service said: "There are no fatalities but ambulance crews are dealing with a large number crossroads of walking wounded casualties. Firefighters have used hydraulic cutting equipment to release five people crossroads from their vehicles." An aerial view of some of the crashed vehicles. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
The injured were being taken to hospitals crossroads including Medway Maritime in Gillingham which was closed to new patients to cope with the accident victims and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in Margate.
The local MP Gordon Henderson said he had previously had concerns about lighting on the bridge, and would be asking questions of the authorities, but added: crossroads "Today my concerns crossroads must rest solely with the people that have been injured on the bridge."
Concerns were raised when the bridge opened in 2006 by the then chief constable of Kent police, Mike Fuller, about safety aspects including the lighting. However, the Highways Agency insisted there was nothing wrong with the design. A crashed car on the Isle of Sheppey bridge. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
"Stupid driving", with vehicles far too close and not using fog lights, may have caused the crash, Edmund King, president of the AA, said. He said he himself had had to warn a driver two feet behind him in fog on the M25 to keep back. "It's really bad to travel too close to the car in front in good conditions and if you do it in foggy conditions it's an absolute recipe for disaster. In dense fog you cannot see the brake lights ahead. By law, you don't have to have fog lights on, although it's recommended." He also warned crossroads that many involved in the incident would find their insurance policies required them to pay the first 200- 300 of a claim for a shunt-like crash.
As bright sunshine burned off the fog, the extent of the devastation became visible. Hours after the crash, dazed survivors were still wandering on the carriageway, their cars trapped in a tangle of crushed metal. Witnesses reported cars with their roofs ripped off, and said that at the height of the incident motorists were continuing to pile into the crash scene with visibility down to 20 metres. Several car transporters, and many lorries, were involved in the pile-up. Drivers and passengers sit on the central reservation of the bridge. crossroads Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
There was traffic chaos in the area with many surrounding roads closed. The police spokeswoman said the bridge was expected to remain closed all day, and urged motorists to use the old crossing crossroads to get on and off the island.
"All you could hear was cars crashing. We got out of our car and it was eerily quiet with visibility crossroads down to just 20 yards. A vehicle recovery worker looks at a crashed car on the bridge. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
"Even after the police turned up, you still heard further down the bridge a quarter of a mile, half a mile away cars still going into the back of each other. It was horrendous." The clean-up operation on the bridge. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
He told Sky News: "It's carnage, it really is. The fog was very, very thick today. You could not see a vehicle in front of you as you came on to the bridge." The crash scene after the fog had lifted. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
Jaime Emmett, a student, was trapped in the pile-up but uninjured. "There was a man at the side of the road saying to stop. I stopped crossroads in time but a van smashed into me and I smashed into the car in front," she said. "It was all quite surreal when it happened."
"All I could hear was the cars smashing crossroads in front of each other and I could not know how far ahead the accident was. It was so foggy I could literally see two or three cars in front of me that was it. Then I could literally see smashed cars everywhere and a lorry had smashed into the central reservation as well." Vehicles crossroads have numbers sprayed on them as the clear-up operation continues. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
The 100m four-lane bridge, which rises to 35 metres (115ft) and connects Sheppey with mainland Kent, opened in 2006. Initially crossroads police thought 200 had been hurt, but this was later revised down as many passengers were freed from trapped cars, shaken but uninjured.
About this article
Sheppey bridge closes after massive pile-up crash involving 100 vehicles This article was published on the Guardian website at 09.28 EDT on Thursday 5 September 2013 . It was last modified at 09.28 EDT on Thursday 5 September 2013 . It was first published crossroads at 04.37 EDT on Thursday 5 September 2013 .
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