Aerial view of crash scene. [Skip O'Rourke | Times]
"All I saw is a big wall of smoke. I jumped out of my vehicle. It's just unreal," said Charles Edwards, 49, of Brandon. He was headed east on I-4 this morning.
Edwards was among those who escaped injury in this morning's wreckage on I-4. He was taken to a Polk County Sheriff's Office substation in Winter Haven.
Jacque Provau, 59, of St. Petersburg, was headed to a doctor's visit in Orlando when traffic stopped. She didn't see anything at first because of the fog.
"All you saw was brake lights and heard people hitting people," she said.
She hopped out of her Mazda van.
"I heard people yelling. I heard them screaming. It was horrible," she said.
It was hard to see because of the thick fog and smoke, but she walked to the side of the road and an ambulance took her to Rose's Truck Stop. She had an asthma attack there and was treated, then she was told to get in a van with Sheriff's Office workers. She thought they were going to take her to her car but instead they took her to a sheriff's substation in Winter Haven.
"My plan is to try and get to my van and go home," she said. She didn't think her van was damaged. She could see semis on fire in front of her, about a half a city block away.
Her eyes welled up as she spoke. She called the wreck scene "very devastating and stressful. I've never seen that many injuries. I've never seen anything like that in my life," she said.
Ray Cotto, 40, of Zephyrhills, said he and coworkers were driving their work truck east and all they could see was fog. Suddenly, their truck was smashed between two other big trucks.
Asked what it was like at the scene, he said, "Ugly."
Linda Turner was in her silver two-door Toyota Yaris when she heard the screeching of metal.
She sat in her car, fearing "a train wreck waiting to happen."
Around her, dozens of cars, including a Polk County sheriff's cruiser, began knocking around the interstate. Through the fog in fleeting glimpses, Turner saw this:
Overturned tanker trucks on fire, a badly damaged gold Toyota Camry rear-ended with its trunk in the front seat. A box truck side-swiped a car. A mangled minivan left the scene atop a flatbed truck. The sheriff's cruiser that approached the scene with his lights was now dark.
Turner was among travelers whose cars were taken to a makeshift triage center authorities set up at a truck stop on State Road 559 just south of I-4. Law enforcement agencies dispatched helicopters from there the fly north to where a soupy, dark gray haze loomed. Tow trucks were leaving five at a time as dozens of cars funneled onto State Road 559.
Jaeson Turner was headed to Orlando form Lakeland. He swerved his blue Toyota pickup truck away from the wreckage. Turner, 42, said he couldn't see much, but what he heard scared him.
"Nothing but accidents. People hollering, crying and cars piling up," he said. "I still don't know whether I'm all right or not."
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said one of his deputies, Carlton Turner, was involved in the original crash early this morning. Turner happened upon a patch of fog, then "total darkness."
Then, Judd said, it was "smoke and fog and fire and wrecks" as Turner's cruiser became involved in a wreck.
When Deputy Turner exited his damaged car, he immediately returned after hearing "metal grinding as vehicles crashed into each other."
Turner was the among the first involved in what already become a chain of vehicles, Judd said.
Despite his injuries, Judd said, Carlton instructed motorists who exited their vehicles to return to their cars. They were unaware that they were standing in the middle of a massive wreck, Judd said.
"He described to me that 'Sheriff, I did all I could do," Judd said.
He continued, "I watched a man burn to death today.I heard others screaming, hollering and crying. I can't begin to explain to you how difficult this scene was. I can't explain to you the trauma that occurred."
Polk Sheriff's Capt. Rob Oakman said the Sheriff's Office is debriefing six uninjured victims at the Winter Haven substation. People are free to leave but can't return to their cars. The cars will be towed, he said, and FHP will help reunite people with their vehicles.
He heard that six to seven people were taken to Lakeland Regional and others were taken to a hospital in Winter Haven, he said.
Paulino Duenas, a 40-year-old Mexican carpenter, was headed from St. Petersburg to St. Cloud to look for work when he rear-ended a tractor-trailer going about 68 miles-per-hour. Just after, another car slammed into his Taurus. With his knee, hips and ankle injured, he waited from 5:30 a.m. to 8 a.m.
"The trailers were burning. People were screaming for help. Some were bleeding,” he said in Spanish. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Duenas’ entire family lives in Texas. From a substation, he wondered who would pick him up. And with a cast on his ankle and a totaled car, he doubted he would find work any time soon.
-- By Abbie VanSickle and Casey Cora, Times staff writers
Complete coverage
The scene: 41 vehicles in all, 20 tractor-trailers
Total darkness: Deadly mix of smoke, fog
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