Ohio Highway Pileup In Dense Fog Kills Three, Forces Mass Closure Of Interstate Corridor

Columbus, United States— Three people were killed Saturday morning when dense fog triggered a chain-reaction pileup on an interstate highway in Ohio.

The crash happened just after 6:15 a.m. on October 25, 2026 along Interstate 75 near Findlay. Visibility was under 50 feet, according to troopers. Drivers entered a thick bank of fog over low-lying farmland and braked hard. Trucks behind could not stop.

Ohio State Highway Patrol said at least 28 vehicles were involved, including six commercial tractor-trailers. Cars were crushed between trucks. Three sedans caught fire after impact. The wreck stretched for nearly three quarters of a mile across both northbound lanes and the median.

First calls came from drivers trapped inside. Dispatch logs show more than 40 911 calls in four minutes. Some callers reported they could not see the crash ahead until they were inside it.

"We had zero visibility in that pocket. Drivers went from clear to whiteout in seconds," a State Highway Patrol sergeant said at the scene. "Cars were still coming at full speed into the pile. We had to shut the interstate in both directions to stop secondary crashes."

Fire crews from Hancock County worked with thermal cameras to locate victims. Two people were pronounced dead at the scene, wedged inside their vehicles. A third died at Blanchard Valley Hospital. At least 12 others were transported with injuries ranging from broken bones to burns.

NBC News reported that the Ohio Department of Transportation had issued a dense fog advisory at 5 a.m., but no variable speed signs were active in that stretch. The fog formed over the Blanchard River basin, a known trouble spot for early morning whiteouts in late October.

Tow operators faced a tangle of jackknifed trailers. One tanker carrying cooking oil leaked across the roadway, making the surface slick. Hazmat crews laid absorbent down before wreckers could move in. The closure forced a 30-mile detour through county roads.

The northbound lanes remained closed through the afternoon while the crash reconstruction unit mapped impact points. Investigators are pulling dashcam footage and ELD data from trucks.