Video: ‘Miracle’ as no-one killed in 100-car pile-up

Eight people were seriously injured and 33 are in hospital following the crash on the new Sheppey crossing bridge in Kent, which started at around 7.15am and continued for 10 minutes as cars and lorries crashed into each other in visibility that was down to 25 yards.

Lives were probably saved because an unidentified quick-thinking lorry driver used his truck to block the entrance to the bridge and stop more cars piling into the crash.

Chief Inspector Andy Reeves, from Kent Police, said he had never seen such a crash in 20 years

“From my perspective, it’s truly miraculous. It’s very fortunate there were no fatalities.”

There were reports of some motorists driving “like idiots” in the conditions before the crash which completely closed the A249 that goes over the bridge.

The scene was full of buckled cars, lorries and even a car transporter as people waited at the side of the road to receive help from the emergency services.

It was reported that people were trapped and a fleet of 30 ambulances and response vehicles went to the scene, with some casualties receiving treatment at the roadside.

Witness Martin Stammers, 45, from Minster, said: “It’s horrific. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.

“All you could hear was cars crashing. We got out of our car and it was eerily quiet, with visibility down to just 20 yards.”

A Kent Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “There are no fatalities but ambulance crews are dealing with a large number of walking wounded casualties. Firefighters have used hydraulic cutting equipment to release five people from their vehicles.

Those injured were being ferried to local hospitals including Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.

The uninjured and the walking wounded were taken down from the bridge on the Sittingbourne side.

Kent Police said there were collisions at the top of the bridge and at the foot of the approach to it.

“Officers are urging motorists to avoid the area but if a journey to the island is essential, the old Kingsferry Bridge remains open but expect long delays,” a spokeswoman said.

South East Coast Ambulance Service said it was dealing with a major incident and deployed its hazardous area response teams (Hart) to the scene.

Student Jaime Emmett, 19, was driving through the fog when she became involved in the pile-up.

“There was a man at the side of the road saying to stop. I stopped in time but a van smashed into me and I smashed into the car in front,” she said.

“I was lucky I was not injured. It was all quite surreal when it happened.”

Ms Emmett said the fog was so thick that you could only see a few cars in front but added: “All I could hear was the cars smashing in front of each other and I could not know how far ahead the accident was.

“It was so foggy I could literally see two or three cars in front of me - that was it. Then I could literally see smashed cars everywhere and a lorry had smashed into the central reservation as well.

Saying she was “still quite shocked” as she stood amid the aftermath, she noticed that the ambulances were on the scene straight away.

She said: “By the time I got out of my car there was already an ambulance there. There was a man being taken off in a stretcher.

“I could see that everyone was shocked but they were just checking to see that everyone else was OK.

“It was surreal and it might have been worse but people were going slower because it was quite foggy.”

Mr Stammers said: “I was very, very, lucky. I was the last car out of it, if you like. As I came to the top of the hill, there were about five cars already smashed up, one was across my carriageway. I had to hit my brakes hard as well, I just had enough space to get through.

“From then on, all you could hear was the screeching of car tyres and the thudding, which was endless. It must have been going on for five to 10 minutes. You could hear hear the screeching, you could hear the lorries thudding into cars, you could hear glass breaking, there was nothing we could do.

“Even after the police turned up, you still heard further down the bridge - a quarter of a mile, half a mile away - cars still going into the back of each other. It was horrendous.”

He said drivers on the opposite carriageway thanked him for waving for them to slow down, saying they would have been involved in more serious collisions had he not done so.

Mr Stammers added: “As you went further up, there were cars in the air, there was cars under lorries, there was people laying on the floor, it was just horrendous.

“If you were travelling at 30mph you would have still hit the car in front of you because the visibility was down to 10 yards.

“I just can’t believe how close... We was five seconds from, I would say, near death. Very, very, very, lucky, I just hope everyone else there is OK.”

He went on: “I can’t explain how you’re standing there in the quiet and all you can hear is this thud and the glass breaking. It’s just silence, that’s all you can hear - a screech and a thud, a screech and a thud. Horrific, absolutely horrific.”

Conservative MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey Gordon Henderson said he would be talking to the authorities about the accident and he said he had concerns about the design of the bridge’s lighting.

“Today my concerns must rest solely with the people that have been injured on the bridge. Today is not the time to ask questions but later I will be asking questions of the authorities about the accident.

“I have had concerns in the past, particularly about the level of lighting on the bridge, but, until we understand the cause of the accident, and what was a contributing factor, I do not want to make any further comment.”

At the scene, motorists caught up in the accident milled around in hot sunshine waiting to get their cars back.

Cliff Montgomery, 53, was driving his Mercedes from his home on the Isle of Sheppey to his job as a project engineering manager at Medway Hospital in Gillingham when he was in a group of vehicles trapped between a pile-up in front of him and another one behind.

He said: “I was very lucky not to be involved in it. I was in the outside lane when vehicles in front of me braked and cars were crashing.

“There was another pile-up behind the group of cars I was travelling in. All I could do was brake, stop and await further instructions.

“It was very foggy, in places you could only see 30ft in front of you. Cars only need to be going 30 or 40mph for braking distances to become an issue when it’s like that.

“When you see the state of vehicles being brought off the bridge on transporters, you have to think it’s very lucky that no one was killed.

“My car is at the top of the bridge and I’m hoping to get it back mid-afternoon.”

Mr Montgomery had more luck when he heard that his 19-year-old son, who was travelling a few minutes in front of him, saw the first crash, but managed to avoid it, and was able to go on to his job as a trainee engineer in London.