It looked like a patch of fog.
Rolling into it at highway speeds, Brad Mobley realized too late that it was smoke. Something in the darkness ahead was on fire.
By the time he saw a jackknifed big rig blocking traffic ahead of him, Mobley’s options were few: slam his FedEx rig and twin trailers into the other semi, or head toward a rock bluff off the roadbed.
He chose the bluff.
The horrific scene before him unfolded late Tuesday night east of Odessa as an eight-vehicle wreck turned into a firestorm on Interstate 70, a highway that has seen its share of tragedy. Three people lost their lives, and 11, including Mobley, were sent to hospitals, most with serious injuries.
Investigators spent Wednesday trying to determine the cause of the crash, which shut down both westbound lanes for nine hours. Sgt. Scott Meyer of the Missouri Highway Patrol said several investigators were working to reconstruct what caused the wreck.
Accounts from Mobley and another motorist, relayed through their wives while the two recovered, painted a picture of an initial wreck that left oncoming motorists with little warning and spurred a chain reaction of gnarled metal, exploding gas tanks and burning rubber. The fire spread and destroyed at least five of the vehicles, including two tractor-trailers, before crews could extinguish it.
Mobley, 33, the FedEx driver, was back home in Clark, Mo., north of Columbia, where he was on crutches with a leg injury. He also had stitches across a cut on his face and several scrapes and bumps.
