ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 28, 1996 TAG: 9612300099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE BRIDGE spanning Tampa Bay was closed while the wreckage of dozens of vehicles was cleaned up..
More than 50 cars, trucks and vans collided in a string of chain-reaction accidents Friday on the foggy Sunshine Skyway Bridge, killing one person and injuring 24 others.
Dozens of other vehicles were trapped on the bridge by the wreckage, and the soaring 1,260-foot span across the mouth of Tampa Bay was closed in both directions.
Preliminary reports led highway troopers to believe that fast driving and lane changing in the thick fog triggered the crashes.
``It was extremely fortunate. There could have easily been 10 or 20 people killed out here,'' said Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Harry Mofield. ``It was such a mess out here.''
Monitors who scan the bridge's 13 closed-circuit cameras said the thick fog prevented them from seeing the nine separate accident sites after the chain reaction began about 11:30 a.m.
``You couldn't even see the bridge in spots, no less the vehicles,'' said Hugh Bogaert, a toll booth supervisor.
Most of the wreckage had been cleared by 5:30 p.m. Wreckers were still pulling cars, some of them folded like accordions, from the scene. Some front ends were bashed in as far as the steering wheels. On others, the trunks were totally collapsed.
Five of the injured were admitted to Bayfront Medical Center. An 11-month-old girl was reported in critical condition at All Children's Hospital. Officials at other hospitals were unable to immediately confirm how many of the 18 others who were injured were admitted or treated and released.
The bridge is the high point of an 8.1-mile causeway connecting the St. Petersburg-Tampa area to the north and the Bradenton-Sarasota area to the south. Motorists were forced to drive an extra 40 to 50 miles as a detour to skirt the bridge between Pinellas and Manatee counties.
In Southern California on Friday, fog combined with heavy rain combined to cause accidents involving 30 to 40 vehicles on the ``Grapevine'' stretch of Interstate 5. Nobody was killed in the accidents that happened near Gorman - between Los Angeles and Bakersfield - but two serious and several moderate injuries were reported, said Capt. Kevin Scott of the Kern County Fire Department.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Low fog across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge near St.by CNBPetersburg, Fla., caused several chain-reaction accidents.