48-car pile-up on Pune-Bengaluru highway: What causes such deadly mishaps?

The Pune-Bengaluru Highway saw a horrific multiple car collision on Sunday evening, which saw at least 30 being injured.

According to the police, the incident, which took place at Pune’s Navale bridge, occurred when the brakes of a tanker failed and it collided into several vehicles, resulting in a 48-vehicle pile-up and 30 people being injured.

A major accident occurred at Navale bridge on the Pune-Bengaluru highway in Pune in which about 48 vehicles got damaged. Rescue teams from the Pune Fire Brigade and Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) have reached the spot: Pune Fire Brigade pic.twitter.com/h5Y5XtxVhW

— ANI (@ANI) November 20, 2022

During the accident, which reportedly occurred at 9 pm, oil spilled onto the road making it slippery which caused other vehicles to be added to the pile-up. The accident led to massive traffic congestion on the road to Mumbai with people reporting that snarls stretched for over two kilometres.

Car pile-ups are not new and there’s a long list of such incidents taking place all across the world. We take a closer look as to why these accidents take place.

What’s a car pile-up?

A multiple vehicle collision, also known as a pile-up, is defined as a road traffic collision involving many vehicles. These are the most dangerous and complicated types of auto accidents.

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Pile-ups often happen on freeways, expressways or highways where people are travelling at high speeds.

Once the initial collision occurs, the vehicles that are following may be unable to slow down in time to avoid the first crash. As a result, a second, third or even fourth impact may occur. The other impacts are usually caused by the vehicles following in the same lane of traffic directly behind the vehicles involved in the initial crash.

Why do pile-ups happen?

Pile-ups can take place owing to a number of factors, but the most common causes for such an accident is losing control or weather conditions.

For instance, the Pune pile-up took place after the driver of the tanker lost control of his vehicle owing to a brake failure.

In other cases, speeding is another factor that drivers lose control, causing a pile-up.

Tailgating, the act of driving too closely behind the vehicle in front of you, can also lead to a pile-up. Tailgating on the highway leads to rear-end collisions, which can set off a chain reaction leading to a pile-up accident.

If a driver’s tailgating causes an accident, it can leave a short reaction time for the vehicles following closely behind. If all of the vehicles following behind cannot stop or make an evasive manoeuvre, they will crash into the initial two cars and cause a pile-up.

Rash driving or not following traffic rules can also cause drivers to lose control, leading to a pile-up. For example, drivers changing lanes on highways without checking their blind spots can crash into another car, which could set off a chain reaction of crashes.

Weather conditions is one of the most common causes for pile-up accidents. Whether it be a winter storm, rain, or dense fog, adverse weather conditions can reduce a driver’s sight as they navigate a highway. Without a clear vision of what’s in front of them, it can be hard to react accordingly.

Incidents of rain and snow can also make it more challenging to control a vehicle. The roads can be slick with sleet or rain, and keeping complete control of the vehicle can be near impossible. This lack of control can cause a car accident and make it difficult to avoid an accident that has already occurred. A pile-up can intensify because other drivers cannot control their vehicles enough to avoid the initial accident.

This is exactly what happened in the 2017 Yamuna Expressway pile-up. A dense fog had enveloped the area, reducing visibility due to which 24 cars crashed into another, injuring six people.

Is the Pune pile-up the worst accident?

While 48 cars piled up is bad, this isn’t the worst pile-up accident in the world’s history.

India has seen a horrific pile-up in 2017 on the Yamuna Expressway in the Capital’s outskirts. Smog had shrouded the area, causing a 24 car pile-up. According to officials, the trigger of the accident was a defunct car which was rammed from behind by a speeding truck. The truck was ferrying apple cartons and it turned turtle after the collision. Since it was heavily dense morning, over a dozen of cars and heavy trucks kept on piling up on each other in a back-to-back collision. The accident caused the death of one person and another six were injured.

The Yamuna Expressway also saw four other such incidents in 2016 in which 101 vehicles were mangled.

In the past, there have been accidents that have seen over 300 cars piling up, as the one that took place in Brazil’s Sao Paolo. In the December 2011 incident, over 300 vehicles collided in an accident spread over two km of the Imigrantes highway from the coast to Sao Paulo city.

Two trucks and three cars caught fire after the pile-up, which left at least one dead (a truck driver) and another 30 injured. Officials later said that strong winds, low visibility and dense fog were the cause of the accident.

Another horrific car pile-up dates back to October 1991 when 150 vehicles piled-up in the city of Ochten at A15 Motorway, in the Netherlands due to heavy fog. One person was killed and 64 others were injured in the tragedy.

In the US, car pile-ups often take place with the worst one being in November 2002. A Sunday morning fog on Interstate 710 caused a chain reaction pile-up involving 216 cars, shutting the highway down for most of the day. About five people were seriously injured in the accident.

With inputs from agencies

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