Disaster on I-4: We Are Guaranteed No Time Beyond the Present

Smoke from a controlled burn, gone out of control, and unanticipated dense fog rolling in, created a death-scene disaster of twisted, broken, and burned vehicles and bodies in central Florida this week. Wednesday morning, beginning around 4:30 a.m., Interstate 4 northeast of Tampa and southwest of Orlando became an instant murky hell, literally, as visibility suddenly dropped to five feet or less. About 70 vehicles were involved in multiple deadly pileups. There were four immediate fatalities. About 40 people were taken to area hospitals, five with life-threatening injuries.

From the calming peace of an emerging, promising Florida morning to near blindness, screeching breaking metal, exploding shattering glass, screams, and unanswered pleas for help: it happened in a heartbeat. Heartbeat. Immediate. Total.

The accompanying screen captures (from real-time-tragedy video shot by Bay News 9 of Tampa) provide graphic, chilling testimony to humankind's rush to oblivion.

Florida Division of Forestry and Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officials were trying desperately to manage the out-of-control burn. Weather bulletins vainly cautioned of incoming fog and decreasing visibility - at the time of the crash, visibility was cited as a quarter of a mile. Warnings of the danger of fog were posted along the interstate by the Florida Department of Transportation. The Florida Highway Patrol was monitoring the roadway and trying to determine if conditions were grave enough to close the Interstate.

Trying desperately to manage, vainly cautioning, warning of the danger, trying to determine if conditions were grave enough...too little, too late. The result: carnage and tragedy - for some, terminal.