UPDATE: Five victims, up from the originally reported 3, have been identified from this accident: 61-year-old Inderpal Rajput, of Live Oak, 18-year-old Noah Anderson-Burdick, of Yuba City, 20-year-old Camille Bent, of Sierra Madre, CA, 19-year-old Kira Jumper, of Redding, 19-year-old John Wegner, of Redding area.

GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) – A major 10-vehicle collision in the early morning hours of Saturday claimed the lives of 3 people and left others severely injured.

Just after midnight, at approximately 12:39 am north of Hinaman Drive in Gridley, 5 semi-trucks and 5 vehicles were involved in a chain reaction crash that closed the roads for nearly 24 hours. Multiple agencies responded, including units from Chico CHP, Yuba-Sutter CHP, Gridley PD, Butte County Sheriff’s Department, CalFire, Cal Trans and the CHP Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT) out of Sacramento. 

Cal Trans put a hard close on the stretch of Highway from Ord Ranch Rd to Biggs E. Highway as crews addressed injuries and the massive clean up project that kept the roads closed for nearly 24 hours. CHP’s MAIT is investigating the incident, but CHP Officer Benjamin Draper says that it could be months before the exact details of how the accident played out are known.

Footage from a dash camera of one of the Semi-trucks involved in the accident has since surfaced online and shows a dark somewhat empty Hwy 99 at timestamp 0:45:33. As the video continues, the pockets of fog become dense and the flashers of a vehicle stopped in the roadway ahead are visible for just one second (0:46:21) before the semi crashes into the back of the vehicle at full speed (0:46:22). The video shows there was literally no time for the driver to react.

A witness describes a headache causing stench as she unknowingly approached the initial scene of the accident on her way home from Chico. Julie Hilborn says she was unsure if the thickening clouds were fog or smoke, but was forced to come to a complete stop on the highway amidst them with her children in the car. She says, “There was a car on my right pulled off to the side and there was a car to my left with hazards on.” Putting on her own hazards, she slowly turned around in the roadway, inching her way through the dense fog at a crawl. It was that action that probably saved her family’s life. “If I would have kept going (waiting in the Southbound lane) I would have been in it but thankfully I turned around in time,” she continues, “It was the scariest night of my life.”

The names of the deceased have not yet been released to the public. CHP reminds drivers to be cautious during foggy conditions and is asking that anyone with information regarding this incident call Chico Communication Center Dispatch at (530) 332-1200.