{"id":143137,"date":"2026-01-21T14:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143137\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T14:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:05:14","slug":"chp-urging-safety-amid-increase-in-valley-crashes-with-dense-fog-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143137\/","title":{"rendered":"CHP urging safety amid increase in Valley crashes with dense fog"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Smoke billowed up from a semi-truck Sunday as fire crews put out the flames from a deadly Sunday morning crash.<\/p>\n

It happened around 7:30 am on Clovis Avenue near Highway 99 in Fresno County.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Man killed after pickup crashes into semi in dense fog near Highway 99<\/a><\/p>\n

The driver of a Chevy S-10 slammed into the freightliner as it was making a U-turn within the intersection.<\/p>\n

Both vehicles went up in flames, and the 40-year-old inside the pickup died from his injuries.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, fog — it’s here,” says Mike Salas with the California Highway Patrol. “It’s causing havoc. It’s causing tragedy on our roadways.”<\/p>\n

CHP officers say they’ve responded to dozens of crashes caused by low visibility over the last seven days.<\/p>\n

RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Dashcam footage captures moment of deadly Highway 99 pileup in Fresno<\/a><\/p>\n

Exactly one week before Sunday’s deadly crash, 17 vehicles piled up just five miles away on Highway 99 near North Avenue.<\/p>\n

Dashcam video shows the terrifying moments as one driver was blinded, before crashing into several other cars.<\/p>\n

“I lost my breath when I was watching it,” says Melissa Culver.<\/p>\n

Culver and her husband were among the survivors of the massive collision that left one man dead.<\/p>\n

She suffered injuries to her ribs, eye, arm, chest and legs.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Clovis mother survives multi-vehicle crash on Highway 99, thankful to be alive<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, she says she and her family are doing everything to avoid driving in these conditions again.<\/p>\n

“I have thank you letters that I want to send off to CRMC, American Ambulance, the fire department, as well as CHP, but they’re sitting in my home because I haven’t wanted to go to the post office when it’s foggy outside,” she said.<\/p>\n

She’s not the only one.<\/p>\n

Even drivers who have made it to their destinations safely this week say they’ve been afraid while on the roads, too.<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty scary out here recently, especially with the Tule fog coming back in,” says Adrianna Hernandez.<\/p>\n

Others say it’s not just the fog that worries them.<\/p>\n

“Some people just drive too fast,” says Frank Ortiz.<\/p>\n

Authorities say that’s true. With every fog-related crash the CHP responded to this week, speed was also a factor.<\/p>\n

Officers are pleading with the community once again — drive safely, or not at all.<\/p>\n

“Our best advice: if you could postpone those trips until it clears, please do,” Salas said. “If not, please slow down.”<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Smoke billowed up from a semi-truck Sunday as fire crews put out the flames…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[70846,859,3297,39366,112,114,113,70845,294],"class_list":{"0":"post-143137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-70846","9":"tag-california-highway-patrol","10":"tag-car-crash","11":"tag-dense-fog","12":"tag-fresno","13":"tag-fresno-headlines","14":"tag-fresno-news","15":"tag-low-visibility","16":"tag-timely"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}