2 Die, Dozens Injured in Pileups in Fog : Crashes: More than 70 vehicles were involved in collisions in the Central Valley. Visibility along some stretches of California 99 was less than 50 feet.

Motorists speeding through the San Joaquin Valley’s dense winter fog triggered a series of chain-reaction crashes Saturday that left two dead, at least 60 injured and more than 70 vehicles piled up in Livingston and Selma, authorities said.

All the collisions occurred on California 99, where eight accidents were reported within an hour after sunrise. Along some shrouded stretches of freeway, visibility was less than 50 feet, and California Highway Patrol officers blamed drivers for traveling too fast and following too close.

“When it’s foggy, you have to slow down,” said CHP Officer Ron Minor of the Fresno division. “I drive in this stuff every day. I do it for a living. But some mornings, people pass me like I’m standing still.”

The worst crash was near Selma, a small farming community about 12 miles south of Fresno. Heavy fog brought traffic to a screeching halt on the southbound lanes of California 99, where 15 vehicles quickly piled up, including a small passenger car sandwiched between a 45-foot lumber truck and a 45-foot truck carrying spaghetti sauce.

By afternoon, emergency crews were still working to unload the trucks and tow them away in an effort to get to the smashed car, which contained the two victims who died, police said. The bodies were not immediately identified.

Also caught in the wreckage was a tour bus filled with more than 50 Korean students headed to Disneyland, according to authorities. Six youths were taken to hospitals, but officers did not believe that any were seriously injured.

“There were about 12 cars piled up and I would have run into them if I hadn’t been flagged down,” Perry Rath, a 35-year-old motorist from Fresno, told Associated Press.

About half a mile south of there, officers were trying to separate 32 vehicles that had piled up along the highway. Together, the two crashes injured 49 people, including one victim who remained in critical condition Saturday at Valley Medical Center in Fresno.

At the same time, near the Merced County town of Livingston, authorities were investigating six collisions involving 29 vehicles that occurred in rapid succession along a foggy one-mile stretch of California 99. Police said 12 people were treated for mostly minor injuries, although one man remained in critical condition at Memorial North Hospital in Modesto after he apparently climbed out of his pickup and was struck by a larger truck.

“There was one wreck, then pretty soon another, then another, and so forth,” said CHP Sgt. Jim Balestra.

Pileup on California 99

The San Joaquin Valley’s dense winter fog was blamed for a series of chain-reaction collisions that left more than 70 vehicles piled up on California 99 Saturday, killing at least two people and injuring five dozen. The worst crash was a 15-car tangle on the outskirts of Selma. About half a mile south, 32 vehicles slammed into each other. A series of six smaller crashes, involving 29 vehicles, occurred about 90 miles to the north, near Livingston.