I-4 still closed; fog lifts

[Cars pulled over due to poor visibility along Highway 559, near I-4, as fog swept through the area this morning. Ken Helle | Times]
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POLK CITY -- A 14-mile stretch of Interstate 4 remains closed, more than 24 hours after dense fog and smoke caused a disastrous chain of crashes on central Florida's main east-west highway.

By around 9:30 a.m., the fog had lifted and crews returned to work. Officials have not yet to decide whether to open the interstate later today.

"Don't even have a passing thought about driving on I-4 between Orlando and Tampa," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said just before 7 a.m.

Dense fog and smoke returned to the area early this morning, prompting officials to close more local roads and stopping repair work on I-4.

Wednesday morning's chain-reaction of crashes among 70 vehicles killed at least four people, sent 38 more to three hospitals and led officials to close I-4 indefinitely between the Polk Parkway and U.S. 27. 

Polk Sheriff's deputies have opened several smaller arteries they shut down earlier this morning. But due to limited visibility, they closed Old Grade Road between Ruseell road and I-4.

Cleanup and repair work started on I-4 Wednesday and continued until early this morning. Judd said his office put an additional 24 deputies on the road overnight working on setting up a perimeter and an extra 35 deputies are working now.

Bulldozers pushed debris. Crews dumped sand on the road. "There were semis hauling semis," Polk County Public Safety spokeswoman Heather McClanahan said.

Resurfacing and repair work stopped around 3:30 a.m. due to poor visibility.

"They couldn't see their hands in front of their faces," she said.

Earlier this morning, a tractor trailer drove off Polk City Road and into a ditch, but the driver was not injured, she said.

Tow trucks and wreckers have removed all the vehicles involved in yesterday's accident from the interstate.

The nearby fire that sent smoke into the roadway yesteday is 90 percent contained, but continues to smolder over about 500 acres, Polk County Assistant Fire Chief Rick Parnell said.

Local fire crews and the Department of Forestry are monitoring the blaze. How long it burns depends heavily on the humidity and vegetation, he said. Smoke could linger for weeks.

"We don't have enough water to put it out," he said. "It's something that rain will have to do."

Judd said officials are continuing to investigate Wednesday's crash and still have many unanswered questions about the fire.

"For every question you have, I probably have three," Judd told a group of reporters at the command center this morning. "I would have liked to have been in on the front end of this discussion before any of this began."

-- Catherine E. Shoichet, Times staff writer

Comments

My local news was predicting the visability problems, due to the fog and smoke, the night before the accidents. How difficult would it have been for authorities to have someone on I4 to monitor the situation, and call for a closure if nessecary? This didn't require 20/20 hindsight. I thought it was obvious when I heard the predictions. Shame, shame.

Unbelievable! One of the articles said the accident occured at 4:30 AM and that a patrol was on the road as recently as 3:15AM. Recently??????? That's almost an hour!!!!! Don't they know what hours the fog is the thickest? Even I know that. How could they not have had someone on that road continuously? Especially when they knew which direction the smoke was going. Yes, the visibility declined quickly. That should have been expected, especially when smoke is invloved. And, why would we start a controlled burn when we already had mornings of thick fog, whether they thought they could control the burn or not?
Total incompetence and disregard for safety on the part of more than one angency. I'm outraged.

[sariah]

This wasnt just an accident people lost thier lives from this. Can you imagine if that was you who lost your life for something so stupid. If those crews couldnt wait for a different time to start that controlled burn they should have redirected traffic. The fog was already terrible, Im only 18 and i wouldnt have done something so stupid. Arent these people supposed to be proffesionals? God bless the families who lost their loved ones so suddenly and tragically.

[sariah]

This wasnt just an accident people lost thier lives from this. Can you imagine if that was you who lost your life for something so stupid. If those crews couldnt wait for a different time to start that controlled burn they should have redirected traffic. The fog was already terrible, Im only 18 and i wouldnt have done something so stupid. Arent these people supposed to be proffesionals? God bless the families who lost their loved ones so suddenly and tragically.

[sariah]

This wasnt just an accident people lost their lives from this. Can you imagine if that was you who lost your life for something so stupid. If those crews couldnt wait for a different time to start that controlled burn they should have redirected traffic. The fog was already terrible, Im only 18 and i wouldnt have done something so stupid. Arent these people supposed to be proffesionals? God bless the families who lost their loved ones so suddenly and tragically.