The dashcam clip starts like any other commute, a steady roll down Highway 99 with taillights stretching into the fog. Then, in a few terrifying seconds, traffic ahead locks up, brake lights explode red, and a routine drive turns into a scramble to survive. What looks like a simple slowdown becomes a chain reaction that leaves cars crumpled, drivers stranded on the shoulder, and one of California’s busiest corridors at a standstill.
The chaos that unfolded on 99 near Fresno earlier this year is more than just viral video fodder. It is a blunt reminder of how quickly conditions can flip from normal to deadly, especially when visibility drops and drivers are packed tight at freeway speeds. Watching the footage back, frame by frame, is like seeing every bad highway habit collide at once.
The split second when Highway 99 disappeared
In the dashcam view that has been shared widely, the driver is cruising in the right lane of Highway 99 as a thick wall of fog swallows the road. The camera shows traffic moving at a decent clip until the glow of brake lights suddenly blooms through the mist, far closer than anyone would like. Within moments, the driver is hard on the brakes, tires squealing as vehicles ahead swerve toward the shoulder and the center divider, trying to avoid a growing pile of wreckage that is still hidden in the haze. That near miss, captured from inside one car, lines up with a larger 17 vehicle pileup that unfolded on the same stretch of 99 on a Sunday, a crash that was later detailed in News coverage of the fog related disaster.
Another clip, recorded by a different motorist and later shared as part of an Action News exclusive, shows just how close one driver came to being swallowed by that same chain reaction. In that video, the car threads through a narrow gap between disabled vehicles, with hazard lights flashing on both sides and the sound of crunching metal still echoing in the background. The driver’s escape is measured in feet and fractions of a second, a reminder that in dense fog, even a small cushion of space and a bit of extra attention can be the difference between a close call and a catastrophic impact.
From one crash to a full scale pileup
What the dashcams capture in those frantic seconds is only the front edge of a much larger disaster. Earlier this month, a multi vehicle crash on State Route 99 South near Cedar Ave turned into a sprawling scene of twisted metal and emergency lights, documented in Fresno CHP footage. The clip shows patrol cars weaving through stopped traffic on 99, officers moving between damaged vehicles, and the southbound lanes near Cedar Ave turned into an impromptu triage zone. According to that same reporting, the crash involved multiple vehicles stacked across several lanes, the kind of scene that starts with one sudden stop and then snowballs as drivers behind have no time or space to react…