Querétaro, Mexico— A chain-reaction crash involving at least twenty vehicles shut down Federal Highway 57 just after dawn Saturday, leaving the country’s main north-south artery impassable and emergency crews pulling drivers from twisted metal. The pileup started around 6:40 a.m. near kilometer 152 in the San Juan del Río stretch.
State Civil Protection said the collision began with two freight trailers that jackknifed after one braked hard. Cars behind had no chance. Fog was thick. The road was slick. Within seconds, pickup trucks, sedans, and two passenger buses slammed into the blockage, creating a 300-meter field of wreckage that spilled across all four lanes.
“It was noise, then smoke, then nothing moved,” said one driver who walked away with cuts to his face. He was heading to Querétaro city for work. “You could hear people shouting from inside cars. You couldn’t see ten meters ahead.” Paramedics counted 18 injured at the scene, four of them in critical condition. They were taken to hospitals in San Juan del Río and Querétaro.
Federal Highway 57 is not just any road. It moves 40 percent of the country’s freight between Mexico City and the border. When it stops, everything stops. By 8 a.m., the backup stretched 12 kilometers south. Truckers stood outside their cabs. The National Guard closed the highway in both directions to land two air ambulances.
The response was messy. Local authorities and the National Guard argued over who had command. Tow trucks arrived late. One crane broke down trying to lift a trailer loaded with steel rolls. A Guardia Nacional officer on site told reporters, “We are prioritizing extraction, then clearing. The cargo is secondary.” He would not confirm fatalities, but said at least two people were still trapped at 10 a.m.
El Universal sources in the Querétaro prosecutor’s office said preliminary reports point to excessive speed combined with near-zero visibility. Drivers on this stretch routinely push 110 km/h despite the fog warnings. The freight company involved has two prior sanctions for brake failures this year, records show.
By noon, one lane southbound was cracked open. Northbound remained closed. The Secretariat of Infrastructure warned the full cleanup could take until late Saturday. Fuel was leaking from three vehicles. That complicated the work.
Families gathered at the cordon looking for names. The official list of injured had not been released. A hotline was set up, but it rang busy for hours.
As of 3 p.m., the highway was still blocked northbound. Cranes were still lifting. Investigators had not moved the lead trailers.
Published by Banx Network. This article is part of the Banx decentralized media programme, powered by the BXE token on the XRP Ledger.
