The Nation - News from Jan. 1, 1989

Foggy stretches of highway in Illinois and Florida stacked up cars “like pancakes.” Six people were killed and 15 injured in an Illinois pileup involving 23 cars, and 19 vehicles slammed into one another in a single accident in Florida near Cocoa Beach. “It looked like it was straight out of the movies--one of them you see about multi-car accidents out in California,” Gerald Sappenfield, chief of the Ogden-Royal Fire Protection District, said of the Illinois pileup on U.S. 150 about 120 miles south of Chicago. “I guess they’re just stacked in there like pancakes,” said State Police Sgt. Jerry Culp. Authorities were not sure how the accidents developed but Culp said “it was extremely foggy at the time.” Florida officials blamed the crashes on I-95 on the fog and said an earlier wreck had just been cleared before the 19-vehicle pileup that involved a tractor-trailer rig and 18 cars. Police said an unspecified number of motorists were injured in the Florida accidents.