Hours-Long Pileup in N.C. Involved More Than 100 Cars

March 14--More than 100 cars and trucks were backed up for miles -- and hours -- Sunday on Interstate 40/85 in Alamance County following a chain reaction of collisions.

The pile-up began with a five-car wreck sometime around 4 p.m., according to N.C. Highway Patrol, and accidents started occurring on both sides of the interstate soon after and continued throughout the night, until 10 p.m.

"It was almost like watching dominoes fall," said Sgt. Danny Jenkins, of Highway Patrol.

An estimated 134 vehicles wrecked, Jenkins said, and traffic remained backed up from exit 153 in Mebane to exit 147 in Graham, with the majority of the collisions occurring around exit 150.

"There were an incredibly high number of calls," said Chuck Pickard, shift supervisor for Alamance County Central Communications. "We had to use every resource we had to assist with that."

And then some.

Ambulances from Emergency Medical Services in Orange, Chatham and Guilford counties were brought in to handle the number of patients needing to be transported to area hospitals for treatment, Pickard said. Troopers stationed in those same counties as well as some of Highway Patrol's motor carrier enforcement team were also dispatched to Alamance County to assist in wreck investigations.

Though Jenkins said he saw some blood and heard some patients complaining of pain, there were no life-threatening injuries as a result of the crashes, despite one of the early ones involving a Jeep landing on top of at least one other car.

As the backup continued throughout the evening, cars slammed on brakes and ran into other lanes, onto the shoulder and into the grass in attempts to avoid rear-ending vehicles. Pedestrians stood in the middle of the interstate after wrecks, eventually causing fire officials to call for extra law enforcement officers to tell drivers to get back into their cars.

Jenkins said that while working an eastbound wreck, he looked over and saw a driver taking a photo or video with a cellphone as the driver's vehicle rear-ended the car in front of him. Neither motorist bothered to stop and assess the damage.

"Both drivers gave each other the middle finger and they took off," Jenkins said.

Most of the wrecks occurred in clusters of about 20 or 25 cars -- such as a two-car, nine-car, seven-car and five-car wreck located in close proximity to one another, Jenkins said. The most cars involved in any single collision were 12.

Back roads also became congested as some drivers took detours to avoid the interstate traffic.

Pickard suspected that wet road conditions at the time the first accidents occurred, as well as drivers distracted while looking at other wrecks perpetuated the "chain reaction" of accidents.

Page 2 of 2 -- "Highway Patrol is going to have their hands full investigating every accident," Pickard said just before 9 p.m., when yet another five-car collision had just been called in.

Initially, there were only three troopers working the area, Pickard said, though Jenkins said that number eventually reached 14.

For part of the evening, the westbound on-ramp at N.C. 119 was shut down to prevent more cars from driving through the collision area.

Copyright 2016 - Times-News, Burlington, N.C.