100 cars.

[gillsfan1066]

Nice driving folks, talk about following one another like sheep. Bit of fog and 100 vehicles crash, police say they can not discover what happened. Clue, look at the first three or four vehicles at the front of the line, talk to the drivers and passengers and voila , the answer will spring to the for front.
The other 96, cars, 18 wheelers, vans and Amish horse drawn carts were all being driven by morons, too fast, too close, oh and I bet 10/1 the vast majority were on the phone , talking or texting informing anyone and everyone who did not give a dam that the bridge they were driving on was really covered in fog, you should see it ............. CRASH.
Glad to hear there were no fatalities, 8 or 9 people seriously hurt, sure hope none of you guys were amongst them.

[Garawa]

Its absurd gillsfan, and latest estimates are 130 cars!. Two comments have been raised: 1) There were no matrix signs warning of fog! It was broad daylight, as soon as I got out of my house it was obvious it was foggy and that part is always the worst bit! It shouldn't have been a shock to people who should be able to decide for themselves, should we warn them when it gets dark as well! 2) There is no lighting on the bridge! What? It was BROAD DAYLIGHT, what use would lighting have done? And even if there were the lighting would have lit the fog causing a bright haze that would have stopped some vehicles from seeing the fog lights of the car in front making the crash even worse!!!!! Also, there are no calls for lighting on the rest of the A249 so it would be dangerous to suddenly go from light and dark as it takes a while for eyes to adjust.

As per usual we have to spend millions now working out what is dangerous enough to cause this when, as you say, the likelyhood was that people who drive the road every day failed to slow down or was using their phone at the time. Last week a little bit of mist with a visibility of over a mile had drivers dazzling me with their fog lights on. Yesterday going to school in fog, several cars entered the school car park with kids everywhere with no lights at all on! I bet half the cars on that bridge didn't either.

[Robpthegills]

Lets not forget that probably in the region of 85% of people were totally innocent. Once the road is blocked at the front all you can do is stop. However its like dominoes.

If some big arctic at the back comes along at speed and fails to stop hitting some cars at the back they will be thrust forward creating a pinball machine affect.

So it really is not as simple to say look at the front 3 cars at all. They may have been the cause of a small minor knock or even a bad crash, but the blame will lie in several areas.

I would suggest (and I have attended 100's of road accidents) that the fault of the large numbers involved was probably larger vehicles at the rear of the accident travelling to fast and like a pool cue
hitting a car and sending it down the table causing mayhem.

I agree it is stupid, but I would suggest that you cannot really blame all 130 cars involved on stupidity, travelling too fast, or not having lights on. You see accidents on the M25 everyday, where they are travelling at speed and too close together but rarely more than a few cars, I think the fault lies with bigger vehicles at the rear.

Anyway its only an opinion.

[gillsfan1066]

We have huge pile ups over here, I suppose most country's where the car rules supreme do. 99% of them seem to be caused through sheer stupidity of course, oh look a wild fire a mile down the road, smoke every where, I'm not slowing down this is a 65 mph limit and that's what I am dam well going to do, 65 mph. Slow down half a mile before the smoke, put on my warning flashers, no sir not me, TALLY HO CHARGE lol.

[Garawa]

I was in no way suggesting most of those cars were at fault Rob. It only takes one idiot driving at speeds he always does to cause it and he is miles up the road blissfully unaware of what he caused. I mean, go to overtake a slow lorry for example and suddenly see someone late appearing fast on the right, I am sure that car will slam on the brakes as they throw the car bake in to avoid a collision and then everyone piles in behind.

I will still stand by the guess that a lot wouldn't have had their lights on though that would have seen them hit when possibly they might not have. I walked my little boy to school. The main car park has around 25 cars in and 7 of the 15 or so that came in that morning had no lights on, not even side lights and this with dozens of small kids about! As the reports suggest this fog was in one area and people didn't look ahead to see the danger, it is almost certain that many didn't have fog lights on as moments before it was bright and sunny and there was possibly no need for lights at all!

[Kezz]

I personally think the design of the bridge is a serious factor in this, the curve of the bridge makes it difficult to see what's happening ahead at the best of times, team that with extreme weather and human error and I think we extremely lucky that there were no fatalities. I'm not sure that lights on the bridge would have made a difference, slower speed, without a doubt would have changed things, but people are people, what can you do? I hope the powers that be learn lessons from the incident.

[gillsfan1066]

I guess this was a bridge at Kings ferry where you cross onto the Isle of Sheppey. I remember two bridges, the first broke down one night it was a bascal bridge that lifted from both sides, road and train tracks ran over it and one Sunday night when I was a kid we were coming home from Minster when it got stuck open and we had to return to Gillingham Pier late at night in a Chatham Dockyard tug.
Then they built a bridge that lifted on four huge concrete legs, and obviously it was not that one because you attacked that thing strait on, so am I rite in assuming they built another one or is it at a different location?

[CadburyMan]

Totally new bridge