On July 12th, 2024, state troopers in Chattam County respond to a massive collision on Georgia Highway 204 just outside Savannah. As they arrive, the scene is hard to process. Cars are flipped over, debris is everywhere, and traffic is at a standstill in all directions. One of the first responders walks the length of the crash zone. 92. I need fire and EMS 1018. I've still got one trapped in the vehicle and there's fuel and oil everywhere. Did not pull anybody out of this truck yet that I saw. Hey, get everybody back. Get everybody back. He's got a fire extinguisher coming right here. That if this thing goes, that fire extinguisher ain't going to do nothing right there. The officer finds a white pickup truck lying on its side across both westbound lanes. A green pickup truck flipped in the emergency lane. A blue compact car smashed from both ends. A semi-truck sits with its front end crushed in. That fire extinguisher ain't going to help with this situation. I just need everybody as far back as I can get them right now. Hello. Can you hear me? He couldn't hear me. around. It's looking like possibly six vehicles involved. We got another one that's overturned as well. I'm westbound. Uh quarter mile before the east gateway. Hey sir, we were sitting right here whenever he hit. I don't know. I called 911. I don't know if I need to stick around or make any kind of statement or we're good to go or just uh give me a few minutes. Yeah, I've got to try to get this situation under control. So, we were sitting right here. They're trying to go westbound on the eastbound side. I just need somebody to get You got the vehicles, though. No, that white truck right here has got somebody trapped in it. There's fuel everywhere. I'm I'm fixing to try. I've got another one overturned on the back side of it. Watch out. I got shut the road down for right now. Can you see [Music] it? Hey, we got a lot of gas pouring back here. We got a lot of gas pouring back there. GFP alpha one. one. Hey, boss man. Do you know where you're at? Do you know your name? Just don't try not to move. I got somebody coming. Okay. I know it's uncomfortable right now, but I cannot move you. I got my entrapped driver. He's He's conscious but not too alert. Just hang tight, boss man. Okay. I got fire almost here. All right. [Applause] Anything I can help you with? I just You want us to stay back, man? We trying to make sure. I know. I know. And I Man, I can't I can't thank you enough for the help. But if this goes, I ain't worried about it, man. I just do not want anybody else getting hurt. Man, if there's anybody else over here that's hurt um that needs help with anything, okay? Just try to help them and let me know if they need something, please. I got my entra driver. He's He's conscious, but not too alert. That's a large amount of gas, bro. Everyone's out of that one. Everyone's out. Hey y'all, back up from the gas. Yeah, everybody's out. Out of there. Who all was in? How many cars involved? Ladies over here. One of them hurt. Legs kind of hurt. This guy was driving the truck right here. We can step over here. All right. Hey, we got to stop these car. What are these cars doing? down. We were sitting like in the left hand lane and he when that truck when the the truck that it hit first was sitting right next to me. Okay. Um I I don't I mean if you I don't know if I needed to give you any kind of statement or anything or if we were good to go. If if you guys aren't involved, you're good to go. I'll talk. Appreciate you. You still with me, boss man? All right. They're pulling up now. Okay. It's still going to be a minute, but we going to get you out of here. All right. Try not to move too much. I know it's uncomfortable, but please try not to move too much. The whole gas cycle, that thing's spewing. Okay. And there's oil everywhere underneath the carriage. We got another one overturned behind it. There is one trapped in this white truck right here. Driver, he's he's caught by the belt hanging upside down. He is conscious, but he's somewhat coherent. 81. Stop all these cars from coming through. No more traffic through here. Multiple EMS teams arrived to treat the victims. Her car came up on the side of us. Okay, tell her go EMS. I was the first car. Do you need EMS? I don't need EMS. Okay, we're getting everybody to back up. There's a lot of gas spilling, so if y'all could just take that way. 81 is Saki. Stop all these cars from coming through. Were y'all involved in it? No, you're in front of it. Those girls were This guy was This guy is This truck right here. Do you Do you need EMS or anything? I don't I don't think so. I don't know. My wife told me to go high. You're you're holding your arm like it hurts. Do you need EMS? I just had surgery on my knee and that's what's hurting. That's what I think. Might as well get them to check you. Yeah. Get him to check you out. At least at least 10 people are injured and some are being taken to Memorial Chatam Hospital. Despite how bad it looks, responders confirm there were no fatalities at the scene. As officers begin interviewing drivers, one detail keeps coming up. They were already stopped. Then out of nowhere, they got hit. I wouldn't get too close to it. There's a lot of gas. Were you guys in this vehicle? Yeah, me and me and the two were in this vehicle. She was driving, but when we when we both looked behind us, I look up and I just see this semi flying through. We were all already stopped and everything. Had been there for like at least a minute now. Did you guys get hit first? No, we got hit second. We I don't even know. We We got We got flipped up and around like we were facing this way obviously. Yeah. As soon as that was flooring at us, that car I think that one got hit first and this one hit uh hit us as soon as it got shot forward and we flipped and that one got hit. Are they okay in that car, dude? We're still We're still working on him. Y'all want to sit down? Just relax a little bit. He had a kitten. A little black and white kitten. He's a gray or black and gray. Whatever. White and gray. Same thing. My phone is my phone. I was trying. Is there anybody else in here? No. No. I don't see in here. He ran that way. He ran into the semi truck and went that way. I was trying to chase it. He just had a little collar on. It's just not in the truck. Just like a five or six truck and he ran that way. A dog. Cat. No, a cat. A little cat. It's a gray and white cat. Like, all right. I need to talk, man. Just hang tight for me. All right. Are you guys involved as well? Everybody okay, though? Oh, yeah. All right. All three of y'all were in this one. Yes, sir. All right. Cool. Obviously, them two was driving the blue, which ran into us. Yeah. CNA in the blackest. One, two, three, four, five, six. There's more up there. There's another black light. Okay. Okay. We got We got the ambulance on the way. Are you able to sit down? Do you need to sit down? Do I need to do any? This is my car here. It's totally. Do I need to do anything? Did you get rear ended? Oh god. Yeah. And my front's gone. Well, I mean, so you got to kind of panic. Yeah. Just hang tight. Okay. We We had a lot of cars. Friends kind of. Okay. It's probably going to be a minute. Yeah. Cuz obviously probably already, you know, with the guy trapped in there. Um just give us a minute. I'll take your tag down. Sure. And we will go from there. Okay. It's okay, baby. My cars, to be honest, after they hit me and I seen them keep coming, I hit the gas and moved my car up so it hit me more. Okay. Mine's a black car in the front. Do you have damage? My tags off my whole house. Who was behind? I was behind. I was I was behind too. I was behind your car. Okay. Mine was the first car that was in line and I guess this car and when I rear and I seen him steady coming, I hit the gas. So you have you have no front end damage with the rear end? Just the whole rear end. Yeah. And then my tag somewhere in the mix of all this. Okay. Y'all hurt you any pain anymore? Were you all wearing seat belts? I wasn't. She was I wasn't I'm sorry. I was Hey, so you hit your head. I don't know. We just She might have. Okay. But the way that impact is, she probably We went up and she was in the back seat. We went up and then over. All right. So, essentially semi came in, hit that truck, they hit the blue car, blue car hit you. Yeah. Hit us in the back of like they went underneath us, I guess, cuz the back of us. He went all the way cuz when we cuz when I saw the semi coming I saw the white truck went left side, the car went right and then at one point I was looking all the way down towards the ground and that's when we flipped over when we went down again. It surprises airbags didn't go off. No airbags? No. Don't know what the hell happened. Another driver says their vehicle was struck after another car got pushed into it. Others report they didn't even see it coming. We were just coming up through here and I saw this blue car like up on our side. So you were on the left lane or the right lane? I was in the other left lane. And you saw the blue car. Yeah, she was up on like right here. I'm assuming she's the one that hit that one is what I would Matt. You remember? I think she's the one that hit that. What happened was when we come into this lane, we were approximately where that truck is. The the the one that slipped over. We were there. Uh-huh. That lane had pretty much stopped. We were already stopped. We were 20, maybe 15 ft away. Something happened in this lane where it caused when she went when when he went to swerve, she was swerving at the same time to get out of the way of being hit. She ran into us. Was she in that was she sliding in the left or right? Looks like the left. Yeah, she she was kind of going left to miss the you know the accident that was in front of her. What did she do though? Working on her backwards. We didn't we didn't do Well, I know I know that her her tail end hit right here. Don't know if it is, but she did hit the tail end of us and then she slid across. I will say that I was on this side and I seen him when the car she just came to hell. Okay. I see. I see. I see. This is yours? Yep. It was. I mean, if you have no leakage, you need just to a gas station or something like that. You're good right now. Okay. Um, we're going to have to figure out what we're going to do, but um, we'll, uh, we'll let you know, but like I said, I'm just saying it might be, you know, an alternative. You may be able to at least get to a gas station or something like that. Um, to be honest with you, I believe the blue car was in between these two and that's how it got flipped over. She might have come around here. You see the tailgate of the truck here? Where's the driver of this blue car at? She's right here. She's in right. She might have been. She There she is. Right there. Hey, Liz. Who have you gotten? Have you got the driver of this blue car yet? She's on the stretcher right there. Yeah, she's right there. She's right there. Did you already get her statement? Huh? Did you get her statement already? Yeah. All right. So, it's looking like blue car truck. That truck looks like semi. This white truck, this car, this truck. She hit this and him. She hit him. Yep. She slid all the way up the side and the rear in the back of it. Okay. So, was this truck in that car? I'll have to talk though. I try to ask you who you talking to. Okay. Yeah. She She doesn't know where she was at instead, but she got panced as well. So, I'm assuming blue car. Who blue car hit that? Yeah. Okay. So, it would have had to have been cuz I've only gotten these two. I just wouldn't know if there's He's saying eight or nine. I don't have eight or nine cars. No, we got one, two, three. There's another one up there. They just got They were in the very front. They just got bumped in the rear end. See that one up there without the plate? Yeah. You ain't got that one. I told her to grab her license, though. What? We got Entrament right here. But you got fuel dumping. I see. Everybody else is out, but you've got people. There's like Hey, hey, hey. I didn't I move the Android so we got fuel. After checking vehicle positions and comparing statements, they finally start to piece together what triggered the entire mess. One of the officers approaches the driver of the damaged semi-truck, the one with the crushed front end. Here comes I want you to talk. This going to be the DOT guy. Okay. Here in a minute. You got everything in there? I didn't. Can you get off the ball for a second? No, I thought the boss. Okay. Well, we'll deal with your boss in a minute. What happened? You driving this real. What happened? Did he come Where did this car come from? Where did he come from? Where did he come from? What happened? He hit you. No, I didn't realize. Huh? You hit You can sit down. You can sit down. You got You got a driver's license in there? Yeah. And what happened? What happened, man? You don't know? You got a camera in the truck? I think so. Is there a camera? A dashboard camera, baby. But the brake is My brake is not working. Your brakes. So, your brake. What happened? Did you hit him? Yeah. You were You were coming up here. You didn't have brakes. Okay. They got your uh commercial driver here on the ground. Yes, sir. He said his brakes didn't work. The driver explains he couldn't stop. His brakes gave out. And with traffic already backed up, there was no time to recover. His truck slammed into the back of the line, setting off a violent chain reaction. One truck, one brake failure. Eight vehicles were damaged. 10 people were hurt. I got my commercial driver right here. I'm going to put uh CC. Yeah, he said his brakes didn't work. His officer's brakes. I got I already told there's about eight or nine cars involved in this whole thing. What? He just 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and there's eight and nine up here on the other side of the fire truck. I mean, he blasted. I got [ __ ] glass all over my face. I can see it, dude. Hold on. It's all over you, dude. Just be careful. He just come rolling through here and he didn't have brakes. That's what he just told me. I didn't have brace fatality. Is it going to be a fatality? No, he's he's conscious. He's up right in front of the commercial vehicle. This is gas. It's just pouring out of the tank roughly. I got shards of glass all over me trying to get to him. Making sure he out or you good? I just I probably just need to be rinsed off somewhere. I've got it all in my damn hair. Every time I wipe something, I keep getting shards in me. Tore my damn gloves all to pieces. Out here trying to film. I got people over here just being nosy. Walking up from back there trying and I'm like all the way up here filming. I'm like, were you involved? No, I'm just looking. Get the out of this. He's busted up pretty good, but I I mean other than just maybe a couple broken bones, he should be okay. He's got a pretty good contusion on his head and face. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I got chunks of glass in my finger. I see somewhere there. Hey, hey, hey. Total. I thought you said nine. So, eight. Eight. Damn. Yeah. Here. Back around. That'll that that's going to be our best bet. Okay. Total five. There's eight. I don't know how many are going to have to be towed. Maybe one that's not towed. She's going to get towed. This one. This one. This one. Those two. These two back here aren't going to get towed. She became I swear to God, it's like something was flying over me almost. Or right. Well, that's kind of the way that the damage looked. Yeah. It looked like parts or something is what took out your rear windshield. Like parts either from the back of this truck, right, or something. Yeah. But the way the damage is on the front side of your vehicle, it almost looks like somebody rolled over your hood. Right. And as soon as I I could feel something was wrong. I veered off this way because I feel the impact. Have the driver of this vehicle and the driver of that Ram truck 41. Okay. Hang on. They were They're going to be transported by who? Uh by the unit 41 to Memorial. 41. Yes, sir. And then I've got the two females in that rollover truck and 46. And they're going to be transported to Memorial. Yes, sir. Everybody's going to go to Memorial from the scene. Change the lane. Who change? Oh, whoa, whoa. Okay. Who changed lanes on you? This one to change the lane in the the brick and the traffic is stopped. So he come up beside you. He coming from this side, this side. I try to push a brake. The brake low no control after I hit this guy. We going together. Okay. So, you hit him in the rear. Yeah. You hit this gentleman in the rear. Cause him to Yeah. flip and hit the other car. Yeah. Okay. And now all of a sudden his story is changing. Nice car. Yes. Anyway, we can do a pre-insspection on him with we're just looking at the brakes to see if they were engaged or I I can tell they were engaged by by lockup, but um loaded. He told me he was told he was loaded. He gave me super. What's he loaded with? Yeah. All of that is going to SAP's record yard that the trailer for. No, we can't break the trailer down here. We got to remove it from the road. It's got to go to with with the tow service to the yard. The truck is coming to pick the They can pick it up from the yard. Yeah, they can pick it up from SAPS. Hey everyone, it's Trent, prior deputy, sheriff, patrol sergeant, and K9 handler. Multi-vehicle collisions are some of the worst calls that I've personally ever been to. They are incredibly chaotic and stressful for obvious reasons. As an officer, you're going to respond on scene. And typically for things like this, it is pandemonium. Especially when you have eight vehicles involved like this incident, you have a lot of injuries more than likely up front that are going to need your attention. You have random onlookers. You have people showing up to try to help the situation. More often than not, they're just going to be getting in the way. But sometimes additional resources like that, random citizens that want to try to assist you can be beneficial if you're the first one on scene. But right away, you're going to try to triage the situation. See who needs medical attention immediately. See who doesn't. See what active hazards are still ongoing. Like this instance, there's a gasoline that's continuing to come out of this vehicle. So, that's definitely going to be a major concern. Then you're having to navigate emergency medical services, fire personnel, additional units, guys that you work with to the scene to deal with the traffic situation and to also assist you. So, there's just a lot going on. And sometimes people see cops in these situations and they think that they're not moving faster enough or there's not enough exigency in their behavior. But trust me, there is. And if you're going to be freaking out and doing everything rushed, you can potentially make a situation worse. Like this one guy that's trapped in that truck that was right in front of the semi, that officer didn't want to pull him out for for good reason. He could have a spinal injury that he can't see and he doesn't want to move him. and potentially cause this guy to be paralyzed. What's amazing is the fact that there were eight vehicles in total involved in this incident after getting hit by this semi. And it sounds like thankfully nobody was, but I'm sure some did suffer some pretty severe injury. And then you have to look into what caused this in the investigation. And the driver of that semi-truck, as we see toward the end of the video when he was questioned, he said his brakes didn't work. although there is some sort of language barrier there. But then later he said that his brakes were just ineffective in completely having his semi come to a stop. And that officer checked to see down the roadway and they saw that no, there were markings on the ground that showed that his semitr did engage its brakes, meaning more than likely he was just following way too close and he didn't have enough time to stop. And in this officer's report, they were able to determine that based on their investigation at the conclusion of it that he was following way too close. And then they mailed him a citation in the mail for that vehicle code violation of following too close to another vehicle. And that's going to be it for this one. See you guys in the next one. The driver of the semi-truck was later cited for following too closely. [Music]