Posted on 11/04/2007 5:16:33 AM PST by radar101
By Garance Burke ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:01 p.m. November 3, 2007
FRESNO – A 62-year-old man was arrested Saturday on a misdemeanor drunken driving charge after two people were killed in a massive morning pileup in dense fog that involved more than 100 cars and trucks, the California Highway Patrol said. Eighteen big rigs were involved in the massive pileup on Highway 99 just south of Fresno as patches of dense fog obscured visibility on the heavily traveled roadway, CHP officials said.
CHP Officer Kirk Arnold would not identify the man who is being held in Fresno County jail, and said the cause of the crash was still under investigation.
“He has not been said to have been the cause of (the crash), he is just a person who was involved in the collision who was taken in for DUI,” Arnold said.
The CHP was still investigating the crash Saturday evening. Arnold said felony charges would be filed against the man if he is found to have been responsible for the pileup.
Officials identified one of the victims as Travis Rogers, 26. A 5-year-old also died but has not been identified, Arnold said. The two victims were traveling in separate vehicles when the chain-reaction collisions occurred around 7:45 a.m.
CHP Officer Paul Solorzano Jr. described the scene as “something out of a movie, walking up and seeing all the cars mangled and crushed.”
Rescuers had to extract several people trapped in the wreckage, and paramedics transported more than three dozen patients to the hospital with injuries, Fresno City Fire Department spokesman Ken Shockley said.
The freeway's northbound lanes around Clovis Avenue were shut down indefinitely as investigators worked to determine the cause of the crash. Traffic backed up for miles south of the wreckage. Southbound lanes remained opened.
Arnold said the freeway would be opened by 9 p.m. tonight.
Two of the big rigs leaked 90 gallons of diesel fuel onto the freeway when their fuel tanks ruptured, but the diesel was contained. No hazardous materials were spilled, CHP officials said.
Hours after the accident, the freeway was littered with smashed cars and trucks, broken glass, auto parts and blood. A big rig carrying stacked crates of live turkeys was stranded in the middle of the normally busy highway.
Crash victims gathered on the freeway shoulder near the wreckage, waiting to be interviewed by investigators.
Cindy Ramirez, 21, of Selma, said her purple Mazda pickup truck was rear-ended as she was driving to her job washing windows in Shaver Lake.
“Everybody was trying to miss everybody, but it was impossible not to get hit,” Ramirez said. “I'm fine physically, but I keep thinking about all of the things that could have happened.”
Omar Macias, 33, was hauling asphalt from Bakersfield to Elk Grove when his truck was caught in the pileup.
“I got out to check on people at first, and then I heard more crashes around me, so I got right back in,” said Macias of Bakersfield. “I feel OK, but I don't what OK means right now. People got hurt.”
Even as investigators interviewed dazed drivers on the roadside, crews began sprinkling sand on the freeway and sweeping up shattered glass.
Thick seasonal fog known as “Tule fog” typically occurs in Central California in the late fall and winter. Two people died along a nearby stretch of fog-blanketed Highway 99 in an 87-vehicle pileup in 2002, and another section of the roadway several miles south was the scene of a 74-vehicle crash that left two dead nearly a decade ago.
“There was probably two-foot visibility in the fog when I got here. It was really bad,” said Mike Bowman, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “It looked like chaos. Cars were backed up on top of each other.”
Micky Padilla of Porterville was driving with his family to a baptism when they heard the sound of metal screeching, struggled to brake and slammed into a Nissan Maxima.
Padilla ran out and found a man bleeding in a white pickup. The man was still breathing minutes later when firefighters arrived, but later died on the highway, Padilla said.
“It was just bang, bang all around us,” Padilla said, shaking his head as he stood next to a puddle of blood on the blacktop. “I can't believe I still have my wife and my kids. Someone was looking out for us.”
My instincts tell me that the 62 year old DUI driver is an illegal alien. Why else would the PC Patrol refuse to identify him?
If he’s an illegal, how do they know with any certainity that he’s 62? Maybe he’s a Calif. legislator or other bureaucrat, ex-cop who knows?
Why?
Regards
Yep sounds like an illegal from Texas to me;
....
Morris Taylor, 61, of San Antonio, Texas was arrested on a misdemeanor drunken driving charge. The investigation into the crash was expected to take months and no official cause had been determined, said CHP Officer Kirk Arnold.
http://www.kcra.com/news/14503956/detail.html
“CHP Officer Kirk Arnold would not identify the man who is being held in Fresno County jail, and said the cause of the crash was still under investigation.”
More cover-up of ILLEGALS just like the disappearing victims in the tunnel crash.
Just like all of the budget problems the State of Illinois is having, well, “DUH”, maybe if you kicked out some ILLEGALS we wouldn’t have these problems.
“Morris Taylor, 61, of San Antonio, Texas”
At least that’s what “one” of his five driver’s licenses stated.
It’s still a metaphysical possibility for him not to have been an illegal alien, you know.
OT, do you know if they’ve located those 10 missing drivers from that big crash/fire of a month or so ago?
Not on FR.
Spot on!
There were three, separate accidents over a distance of about one mile. All three accidents were the result of tailgating at excessive speed under patchy fog conditions (visibilties varied from 1/2 mile to 10 feet within 100 feet on travel).
Local reporters indicate that the CHP is reasonably certain that Morris caused the first accident but aren't sure it contributed to the second or third accident. There were no fatalities in the first accident.
But of course - anything bad happens today - it's gotta be an illegal.
Your instincts are right on,
"Morris Taylor," - yep, obviously Mexican.
news flash - not every crime of bad thing that happens is done by an illegal...
Seems like this happens fairly regularly in California.
When it’s foggy, why don’t they slow down?
There were three, separate accidents over a distance of about one mile.
Fog can be very dangerous and difficult to drive in. Didn’t this happen around 8 am? If so I’m wondering what Taylor was doing under the influence at that time....
OT, do you know if they’ve located those 10 missing drivers from that big crash/fire of a month or so ago?
CHP officials, meanwhile, sought to clarify the status of a number of truck drivers involved in the wreck whom officials had earlier suggested were missing.
Garrett, the CHP spokesman, said investigators have contacted “most, if not all” of the drivers. But they have yet to match some of the drivers to trucks that were badly burned in the crash.
“Some of these vehicles were melted down to the ground, so it takes time,” Garrett said. “But it’s not as if these people have vanished into thin air. That was a miscommunication.”
Thank you much.
First background: Tule (convective) fog requires air movement to bring saturated air over cold ground. Tule fog moves. Not fast, but it moves. Conditions at the time of the accident were isolated patches of very dense fog (visibility less than 50 feet) moving in a southeasterly direction down the north bound lanes of HWY 99 (which was already suffering a reduced forward visibility of less than 1/2 mile because the air temperature was approaching the dew point).
Here's what witnesses report:
As soon to be victims spotted the wreckage ahead, through the clearer patches, they would slow and pull over. But, as the dense fog drifted in and obscured their parked vehicles, following drivers would plow into them.
Any CHP Officer CAN release names of drivers involved in collisions.
From personal experience, and being ordered not to say “Illegal Alien” while on duty,
the conclusion is.....
Doncha think that is really jumping to conclusions? Honestly my first thought too, but I am/was keeping it myself. Not naming him is just part of maintaining his privacy before the investigation is complete. Remember the beating that was taken by ID’ing the ‘bomber’ in Atlanta?
But the name WAS released - per my post
CHP Officer Kirk Arnold would not identify the man who is being held in Fresno County jail, and said the cause of the crash was still under investigation.
ONCE AGAIN:
My rule of thumb is to investigate before assuming an accusation = especially if making it on the world wide web...GOOGLE is at your fingertips - GOOGLE is your friend. The name WAS published in articles BEFORE this one -
Officials arrested 61-year-old Morris Taylor of San Antonio on misdemeanor drunken driving charges, but the cause of the wreck is under investigation and may take months to determine, said CHP Officer Kirk Arnold.
Bold enough?
(Then again, I could still be wrong - you may still be right, Morris Taylor? Yep = could well be Mexican... - and after I posted you the name - it would have been easier for you to check out...
In addition, I've driven out there, I know the hazard...per:
Thick seasonal fog known as “Tule fog” typically occurs in Central California in the late fall and winter. Two people died along a nearby stretch of fog-blanketed Highway 99 in an 87-vehicle pileup in 2002, and another section of the roadway several miles south was the scene of a 74-vehicle crash that left two dead nearly a decade ago. “There was probably two-foot visibility in the fog when I got here...
and once again - everything bad that happens is not automatically by an illegal alien - and NO, I am NOT an illegal alien sympathizer - it's just that I was an investigative reporter and I never printed for public readership anything that could reflect negatively on anyone unless I could be quite sure I could back it up.
Usually, it's the libs who don't mind blanket accusations -
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