2 dead, 9 injured in 35-vehicle pile-up on California highway

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — Two people are dead and nine are injured after a 35-vehicle pile-up Saturday on a California highway.

According to officials on scene, vehicles and 18 big-rigs were involved in a crash on I-5 South.

Our GPS notified us that there was an accident and so we stopped, and two minutes after we stopped, the car behind us hit us, and that's when everything just happened fast," said Yesenia Cruz, a driver involved in the crash.

CHP Buttonwillow PIO Manny Garcia said fog may have been the major cause of the accident.

"All the witnesses have fog visibility at approximately 100 feet at the time, so there was heavy fog at the time of the collision," Garcia said.

"Everybody just started screaming for help, just like that, and there were little kids as well crying," Cruz said.

The California Highway Patrol said nine people had minor to moderate injuries, and two people died.

"Yeah it was pretty chaotic when I first pulled up at the scene, it was compressed natural gas, saddle tanks on the side of some the big rigs that were ruptured, so a lot of the bystanders that weren't injured were trying to help people and were in a plume of natural gas so we had to deal with that first and get everyone evacuated from that area," said KCFD Battalion Chief Jim Calhoun.

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