When a truck accident involving two vehicles occurs, sorting out what happened can be complicated. Eyewitness accounts often differ; one or more drivers may be too injured to immediately give a statement; and the damage to the vehicles do help tell a story, but can hinder it as well.

When a multi-vehicle, multi-crash truck accident occurs, like the one on Interstate 75 near Paynes Prairie, Florida, over the weekend of Jan. 28 and 29, sorting out what happened can take even longer. We wrote about one portion of the accident on Jan. 31, immediately after the series of weekend crashes occurred.

As time moves on, more is becoming clear as to what happened that day as survivors of the crash that killed a now reported 11 people and injured at least another 20 are talking about the event. Accident reconstruction officers have also been piecing together the events leading up to the fatalities.

According to investigators, the crash began on late Saturday afternoon. A brush fire began in the area, approximately 800 yards east of U.S. Highway 441. As the fire spread, so did the smoke. Just before the clock struck midnight, reports of accidents became rolling in. While all of these accidents were serious, some leading to injury, there were no fatalities during the night.

Highway officials closed the lanes until 3:21 a.m., Sunday morning. It took less than one hour after the roads were reopened for the smoke to return and the second wave of accidents to begin. In our next post, we will discuss the loss that the series of accidents caused on Sunday morning.

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