9 killed in Fla. highway pile-ups 9 killed in Fla. highway pile-ups - Life Fog and wildfire smoke might have caused overnight tragedy GAINESVILLE, Fla. - At least nine people died in crashes overnight apparently caused by fog and smoke from a wildfire along Interstate 75 in north Florida, authorities said Sunday. At least four to five large commercial vehicles and 10 passenger vehicles were involved. Many were badly mangled. The pile-ups, on both north- and southbound lanes, happened around 3:45 a.m. Sunday on both sides of I-75 south of Gainesville. All lanes of the interstate remained closed as investigators began their work examining the vehicles, many of them just burned shells. Several people were injured and taken to Gainesville hospitals. Their conditions were unclear. The Florida Highway Patrol had closed the highway briefly earlier overnight because of a mixture of fog and smoke from a marsh fire in the Paynes Prairie area south of Gainesville. The agency had several troopers driving along the stretch of I-75 to access the situation early Sunday. "When the visibility cleared, we reopened the road," said Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Patrick Riordan. He said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash. Riordan said this is the worst accident he's seen in his 27-year career with FHP. U.S. 441 is also closed and traffic is being diverted onto U.S. 301 and State Road 27, Riordan said.