Drivers reflect on 52-car pileup

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (WDTN) - Some of the drivers involved in the multi-car crash along I-75 near Middletown are speaking out a day after the crash.

52 cars were piled-up Monday.  Among the dozens of drivers caught in the crash was Andrea Deckard.

"I saw a car coming upon me and I just kind of braced for the impact," said Deckard.

Deckard lives in Monroe.  She was on her way home when she says she saw a white cloud in front of her, followed by a bunch of tail lights.  She says it was too late to stop, so she swerved and narrowly avoided a jack-knifed semi.

Deckard's van was hit by another car from behind.  Still, she knows it could have been much worse.

"I've never in my life witnessed something like this.  I've never been involved in an accident at all, but something like this when you are literally driving through and all of a sudden, it's like shut the lights off," said Deckard.

State troopers believe there were actually a series of smaller accidents.

Sgt. Clint Arnold called it the perfect storm.  "If you take a combination of reduced visibility and slick road conditions and volume of traffic, that's essentially a recipe for the disaster that we had yesterday," said Sgt. Arnold.

Sgt. Arnold says the pileups prompted a lot of talk in the office and a lot of debate about what drivers could have done to avoid the crash.

H say there is simply no easy answer.  "If you get into the situation that you may have zero visibility and or slick road conditions, I recommend you would reduce your speed, but not to the point that you slam on your brakes and lose control of you car."

Arnold also suggests using your caution lights to help increase visibility and carefully merge to the right.

If you've already gotten into an accident and your car is still operational, he says slowly try to work your way in front of the crash.

While there was no shortage of impact on Monday, troopers and drivers agree, the fact there weren't more serious injuries is a good sign those involved did something right.

"You sit there and realize how thankful you are that this accident was completely massive and we all walked away fine."