In the second post of the three part series, we will discuss the second series of accidents that occurred on Interstate 75 over the weekend of Jan. 28 and Jan. 29. The multi-vehicle truck accident resulted in the death of 11 drivers and passengers and left another 20 individuals seriously injured.

The first series of accidents occurred during a time when smoke and fog had covered much of I-75 in Florida near Paynes Prairie. The second wave began after the Florida Highway Patrol reopened the highway and the smoke quickly returned so thick that witnesses described it as a wall of smoke.

"It was like a wall," said one survivor. "I thought it was just fog, so I started to slow down. But once we were in it, instantly you couldn't see anything. When I hit the wall of smoke, I knew there was going to be an accident. I knew it was going to be had. I thought we were going to die."

The survivor and her passenger escaped with their lives after they abandoned their vehicle after they ran into a pickup that had struck the back of a semi that was no longer moving, stalled in the right lane. Others were not so lucky.

A 15-year-old girl survived the crash only to lose her father, mother, an uncle and his fiancé and her 17-year-old sister. They were riding in a 2012 Dodge Caravan that collided with the back of a semi. The trailer's rear corner tore through the side of the Caravan, causing the injuries that led to the death of five out of the six family members.

The horrible collision was only one of many that occurred on that morning, forever changing the lives of so many. In the final post of this three part series, we will share the Florida Highway Patrol's response.

Source: Ocala.com, "Anatomy of a tragedy: I-75 crashes," Cindy Swirko, Feb. 4, 2012