Two Dead in Texas Pileup

By Grace Muller, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

November 23,2012; 8:21PM,EST

UPDATE:
2:20 p.m. EST
Friday, CNN reported that two people died in Thursday's crash in Beaumont, Texas, with more than 120 injuries. The accident included a total of 140 vehicles.

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I-10 shut down Thursday morning after more than 50 cars crashed in dense fog. Authorities reported no fatalities, though paramedics drove more than 30 people to the hospital.

According to KBMT, a Beaumont, Texas, television station, the Department of Public Safety "updated the number to at least 140 cars involved in the collision," with hundreds more cars stranded by the wrecks.

"Conditions were favorable for fog formation throughout the upper Texas coast Thanksgiving morning," AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said. "Locally dense fog was reported from Houston to Beaumont and Port Arthur."
The relative humidity was very high. When the temperature and dew point are the same, the air is saturated. Clear skies overhead and light winds allowed the fog to form.
"Throw in nearly bumper-to-bumper traffic," Sosnowski said, "and a sudden drop in visibility, and you have ingredients for a multiple-vehicle pileup, when someone hits the brakes."

READ MORE:
Number of cars involved in collision now estimated at around 140
I-10 Closed in Both Directions After Dozens of Vehicles Collide in Fog Near Hamshire Road