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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that shines a light on the ups and downs

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Speaker 1: of everyday history. I'm Gay Bluesier and in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we're kicking off a week of spine chilling shows with

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Speaker 1: a look at a monster fog that wreaked havoc on

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Speaker 1: the Jersey Turnpike. Most of the stories this week will

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Speaker 1: be spooky rather than scary, but this one does contain

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Speaker 1: descriptions of fatal car crashes and maybe upsetting for some listeners.

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Speaker 1: The day was October three. A mix of fog and

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Speaker 1: smoke blanketed the New Jersey Turnpike, setting off a chain

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Speaker 1: of deadly collisions that night, on one of the most

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Speaker 1: heavily traveled roads in a nation, visibility was near zero.

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Speaker 1: The low lying fog was hard enough to navigate, but

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Speaker 1: when it combined with smoke from a smoldering dump fire

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Speaker 1: one mile from the turnpike, drivers didn't stand a chance.

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Speaker 1: A total of sixty five vehicles crashed into each other

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Speaker 1: in the fog. Dozens of passenger cars, along with tractor trailers,

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Speaker 1: tanker trucks, delivery vans, and even a bus the roadway

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Speaker 1: was littered with broken glass, flaming tires, and burning pools

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Speaker 1: of gasoline. By the time the road was closed and

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Speaker 1: the fog finally lifted, nine people had been killed and

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Speaker 1: more than forty others were badly injured. Since its opening

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Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty one, the New Jersey Turnpike had become

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Speaker 1: a vital nerve for the country, connecting New England and

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Speaker 1: New York with Philadelphia, Washington, d C. And points further south.

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Speaker 1: By the early nineteen seventies, the turnpike had cemented its

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Speaker 1: place as one of America's big East roads, but was

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Speaker 1: still considered one of its safest as well. That reputation

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Speaker 1: changed for the worse in nineteen seventy three. The trouble

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Speaker 1: began shortly before midnight on October twenty three, when clouds

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Speaker 1: of heavy fog suddenly swept across two different sections of

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Speaker 1: the toll road. The New Jersey Turnpike had been plagued

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Speaker 1: by fog before, and on the worst of occasions, large

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Speaker 1: fans and heaters had been brought in to disperse it,

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Speaker 1: though mostly unsuccessfully. However, the fog that evening was particularly stubborn.

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Speaker 1: Instead of blowing by, it sank onto the road and

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Speaker 1: hung there. Many witnesses reported the fog had seemed especially

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Speaker 1: dense that night, with one survivor calling it quote as

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Speaker 1: thick as a brick wall. The National Weather Service later

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Speaker 1: confirmed these suspicions, explaining that smoke particles from a nearby

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Speaker 1: dump fire had combined with the fog and made it

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Speaker 1: exceptionally heavy despite the best efforts of firefighters. The fire

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Speaker 1: in question had been burning in the Hackensack Meadowlands dumping

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Speaker 1: grounds for the past ten days. On its own, the

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Speaker 1: smoldering fire wouldn't have caused such low visibility on the turnpike,

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Speaker 1: and the fog alone probably wouldn't have either, but together

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Speaker 1: they made it impossible to see more than a few

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Speaker 1: inches in any direction. The first of four fatal crashes

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Speaker 1: was reported just as the fog rolled in, but state

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Speaker 1: police decided not to close the roadway. Instead, they reduced

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Speaker 1: the speed from sixty miles per hour to forty five,

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Speaker 1: a change that was posted instantly with the touch of

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Speaker 1: a button. At the time, police didn't consider that the

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Speaker 1: fog might be affecting other areas of the toll road,

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Speaker 1: but they found out for certain soon enough. The largest

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Speaker 1: crash occurred at two am at mile post one ten,

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Speaker 1: when a line of tractor trailers and a few cars

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Speaker 1: plunged into a blanket of smog one after another. In

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Speaker 1: a matter of seconds, twenty five vehicles had collided and

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Speaker 1: six people were killed. To make matters worse, the crashes

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Speaker 1: scattered burning cargo all over the road, and other cars

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Speaker 1: kept driving right into it because they couldn't see the

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Speaker 1: flames through the fog. Meanwhile, just a quarter mile ahead,

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Speaker 1: in the same northbound lanes, two trucks and one car

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Speaker 1: crash into each other, causing yet another death. Forty five

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Speaker 1: minutes later, police finally ordered a total shutdown of all

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Speaker 1: twelve lanes on both the east and west segments of

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Speaker 1: the turnpike. This measure prevented more cars from entering those

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Speaker 1: areas through the toll gates, but it did nothing to

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Speaker 1: clear the traffic already on the road that enabled the

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Speaker 1: final fatal car crash, which took place at three am

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Speaker 1: after the shutdown had already commenced. Police spent the rest

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Speaker 1: of the morning clearing away wreckage and searching for survivors,

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Speaker 1: but the heavy fog made those tasks nearly impossible. Thomas

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Speaker 1: Arnold of the rough of Herd. Police recounted the ordeal, saying, quote,

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Speaker 1: we had so much fog we couldn't even find the accidents.

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Speaker 1: We knew they were out there, but couldn't even find them.

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Speaker 1: We're used to some bad accidents in the area, but

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Speaker 1: all have said they've never seen anything like it. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: the nightmare wasn't over just yet. One day later, on

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Speaker 1: the morning of October, lingering patches of smog caused yet

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Speaker 1: another fatal accident. In response, the state increased its efforts

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Speaker 1: to fully extinguish the Medal Lands blaze, hoping to prevent

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Speaker 1: more monster fog from forming. Thankfully, highway authorities acknowledged the

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Speaker 1: need to react faster and more decisively should those efforts fail.

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Speaker 1: The lesson of that horrific night and early morning was clear.

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Speaker 1: When visibility is effectively zero, then roadways must be closed

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Speaker 1: as soon as possible, because maintaining the flow of traffic

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Speaker 1: should never outweigh the protection of the people behind the wheel.

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Speaker 1: The tragedy of Jersey's killer fog is just how many

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Speaker 1: lives had to be lost in order for such an

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Speaker 1: obvious lesson to be learned. I'm Gay Bluesier, and hopefully

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Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you have a second and you're

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Speaker 1: so inclined, considered keeping up with us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram. You can find us at t d I

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Speaker 1: HC Show, or if you prefer a more direct approach,

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Speaker 1: you can drop me a line anytime at this day

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Speaker 1: at I heeart media dot com. Thanks, as always the

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Speaker 1: Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks to you

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Speaker 1: for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for

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Speaker 1: another Scary day in History class. For more podcasts from

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