A 100-vehicle crash in Kent, England yesterday has locals stunned that no one was killed, but some say the reason for that had nothing to do with luck; an unnamed driver may well have saved dozens of lives with his quick thinking.
After thick fog rolled in and dropped visibility down dramatically, all it took was a mixture of speed and carelessness for the cars to start piling up on Sheppey Bridge. Eight people were seriously injured, but no deaths were reported in the accident that witnesses say went on for ten minutes. One man, a truck driver, moved his vehicle to block more cars from coming up into the wreckage, and that move probably saved many more people from being hurt or even killed.
“He was going the other way and … he’s gone down to the end of the carriageway, gone across the roundabout and actually blocked off the road so no more cars could actually enter the dual carriageway before the emergency services got there,” witness Chris Buckingham said. “Whoever that guy is I’d like to shake his hand because he’s probably saved lives.”
Another witness, Martin Stammers, said he counted himself lucky after slamming on his brakes to avoid a collision.
“I was very, very, lucky. I was the last car out of it, if you like. As I came to the top of the hill, there were about five cars already smashed up, one was across my carriageway. I had to hit my brakes hard as well, I just had enough space to get through. From then on, all you could hear was the screeching of car tyres and the thudding, which was endless,” he said.
There were reports that several drivers were being careless and had no headlights on in the dense fog, which contributed to the massive accident. The bridge was reopened around 5 p.m.
Image: SkyNews video