FOUR people died and nearly 40 were injured yesterday when some 100 vehicles ploughed into one mother on both sides of a foghound motorway in the morning rush hour.
The two major accidents happened in poor visibility on the M42 motorway near Alveehurch, in Hereford and Worcester. Some 60 vehicles collided on the southhound lanes at 6.40 a.m. Minutes later 30 vehicles crashed going north.
Police said that at least 20 vehicles, including two lorries, burst Into flames, turning a 500 metre stretch of the motorway into an inferno of twisted, smoking metal.
The massive chain reaction paralysed traffic in both directions. Police were attempting to reroute vehicles via secondary roads.
Police spokesmen blamed the accident on the fact that motorists appeared to have been driving at near normal speeds through fog that had cut visibility to as little as 5 metres (50 feet).
More than 20 fire trucks and 100 fire fighters fought their way through the maze of vehicles, extinguishing flames, hosing spilled petrol with flame retardant foam, freeing trapped motorists and evacuating the injured to three hospitals.
"It's a major multiple accident," a fire brigade spokesman said. "We've got every many and his dog down there."
A police spokesman said the scene on the highway was "absolute mayhem".
Supt Pat Wing, from West Midlands Police, said he believed the multiple pile up would have been almost impossible to avoid once the initial impact took place.
"The fog was very thick, possibly down to 50 metres visibility. People travelling at any speed in those circumstances would have stood almost no chance at all. Once the initial impact took place, there would have been a build up behind and with the fog being so thick. It would have been like driving into a wall."
Supt Wing added that the intensity of the fire on the south bound carriageway had been so fierce that part of the road surface had melted.