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300-car pile-up leaves one dead on the Imigrantes highway

09/16/2011 - 10h35

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FROM SANTOS

Three hundred vehicles collided in an accident spread over 2 km of the Imigrantes highway from the coast to São Paulo city at about 1:00 p.m. yesterday, generating panic, with victims trapped in wreckage and flipped vehicles on the road. The highway is the main route between São Paulo and the coast.

Two trucks and three cars caught fire after the pile-up, which left at least one dead (a truck driver) and 29 injured.

It was the biggest collision in the system at least since 1998, when Ecovias took over the concession of the highway.

The sequence of collisions near km 41, in São Bernardo do Campo, close to the connecting road to Anchieta, occurred during strong winds, low visibility and dense fog, which were cited as the probable cause.

"It was total despair, people screaming, breaking windows," said architect Marcos Szafir, 83, who was sleeping on a Viação Rápido Brasil bus and awoke with the collisions.

"You couldn't see half a meter ahead," said truck driver Alexsander Mania, 34, who ran away, scared of being crashed.

Information on the earlier stages of the accident, which started the pile-up, was contradictory.

Lieutenant Fabiana Cristina Pane, of the State Road Police, said the accident probably started after two trucks crashed.

Witnesses and rescue teams, however, reported they saw other damaged cars in front of the two trucks.

The state police say nine trucks transporting dangerous products were also involved in the accident.

Both lanes of the Imigrantes highway were closed, and the old one, where the accident happened, was still blocked six hours later, -- no information was disclosed whether it would be reopened today.

The Anchieta-Imigrantes system, crossed by 80,000 vehicles every day, was tied up, with traffic jams both on the coast and in the capital.

The dense fog at 7 a.m. yesterday closed the connection between the Anchieta and the Imigrantes highways, and vehicles were escorted by a convoy (which makes vehicles travel together and slower) on their way down the mountains.

Convoys, however, are not usually used on the up-hill road, where the accidents happened.

The dense fog yesterday hampered the rescue teams' work, which included 200 state police officers, including firefighters and police from the ABC region.

ROGÉRIO PAGNAN, ELTON BEZERRA, FELIPE CARUSO, RICARDO GALLO E ALENCAR IZIDORO

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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