Freezing fog and poor visibility are believed to be behind a thirty car motorway pile up on the A40 in Oxfordshire. One woman has died and two other people are in a critical condition. Fifteen people have been treated at the scene.
According to eye witnesses, debris stretched for half a mile and drivers had to swerve to avoid vehicles damaged in the accident.
The A40 was shut in both directions after the accident which saw six vehicles badly damaged, and a further ten cars are also damaged in some way. The most serious injuries were in the middle of the pile up, where the deceased woman had driven her car into the back of a heavy goods vehicle.
Darren Weston from South Central Ambulance Service, said, “She was taken out of the car by firefighters.
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“The car was crushed beyond all recognition. She was with someone else – it was believed it was her boyfriend.”
In total, three ambulances, two ambulance officers, two rapid response vehicles, and an air ambulance attended the scene.
Pregnant Ami Gaston, a passenger in a vehicle that managed to escape the pile up described what she saw. She said, “A man on his own had skidded and crashed into middle barrier. My partner was driving.
“We had to swerve out of the right lane to avoid hitting him. His door was open and air bags were released.” She described the scene as being “really dangerous, because you could only see other cars when you were on top of it”.
The A40 incident was not the only accident caused by the weather on UK roads. In Andover a man was killed when his van crashed into a tree, and people were hospitalised after being involved in a three car pile up on the M1 motorway.
More freezing fog is expected to tomorrow.
