NAPLES, Fla — One person died and three others were injured in a seven-vehicle pileup early Friday morning on Interstate 75 near mile marker 96 on Alligator Alley. Heavy smoke from a prescribed burn created dangerously low visibility that contributed to the deadly chain-reaction crashes.
The Florida Highway Patrol said the crashes occurred just after midnight on the southbound side of I-75. Investigators said a semi-truck stopped in the travel lane because of the visibility issues, triggering the collision. A 52-year-old man from Madeira Beach was killed.
The crash site is not far from Picayune Strand State Forest, where the Florida Forest Service conducted an approximately 1,800-acre prescribed burn on Thursday. In advance of the burn, the Forest Service warned drivers and nearby residents to use caution due to the potential for lingering smoke.
How weather conditions helped create dangerous smoke levels
When the Forest Service conducts prescribed burns, foresters typically coordinate with the National Weather Service to create a burn plan that includes a smoke-dispersion forecast. Although these forecasts use the best available science, conditions can change rapidly.
On Thursday night, a temperature inversion developed — a common but impactful atmospheric pattern in which warm air traps cooler air near the ground. Meteorologist and wildfire expert Andrew Shipley explains that this inversion acted "like a lid," keeping smoke from the prescribed burn close to the surface.
Shipley spoke with the National Weather Service in Miami, which agreed that the overnight conditions were primed for what is known as a super fog event. Super fog forms when smoke mixes with moisture-saturated air, creating extremely dense fog that can reduce visibility to near zero. These events are rare but have been tied to numerous multi-vehicle pileups in the Southeast.
The last significant super fog event in Florida occurred in March 2022 along I-75 in New Smyrna Beach after a 161-acre burn. That incident resulted in five crashes involving 17 vehicles and claimed three lives.
Investigation ongoing
The Florida Highway Patrol said the "dynamics and sequence of crash events" from Friday morning remain under investigation.
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ORIGINAL STORY:
A 52-year-old man was killed just after midnight on Friday morning, in a chain reaction crash on Alligator Alley.
Florida Highway Patrol says seven vehicles, including three semi trucks, were involved in the crash in the southbound lanes of I-75, near mile marker 96.
Troopers say a semi truck driver stopped in a travel lane because smoke in the area limited visibility. A second semi truck rear-ended the first, and then five more vehicles crashed behind it.
The 52-year-old man who was killed was from Madeira Beach. FHP says he driving a pick-up truck and was the fourth vehicle in the crash. He had two passengers with him, a 38-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy. They have serious injuries.
Only one other person in the chain reaction was injured.
The crash backed up traffic on I-75 for more than 8 hours.
In fact, the interstate was closed in both directions for that long, because there were three other crashes in the northbound lanes in that same area.
According to FHP, the first crash in the northbound lanes involved two semi trucks and a pick-up truck. No one was injured.
The second crash involved four passenger vehicles, but no one was injured.
In the third crash, a passenger vehicle hit a guardrail and no one was injured.
