Pearland couple killed in 100-vehicle wreck near Beaumont

Cars and Trucks are piled on Interstate 10 in Southeast Texas Thursday Nov. 22, 2012. The Texas Department of Public Safety says at least 35 people have been injured in a more than 50-vehicle pileup. (AP Photo/The Beaumont Enterprise, Guiseppe Barranco) less Cars and Trucks are piled on Interstate 10 in Southeast Texas Thursday Nov. 22, 2012. The Texas Department of Public Safety says at least 35 people have been injured in a more than 50-vehicle pileup. (AP ... more Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Associated Press Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Associated Press Image 1 of / 50 Caption Close Pearland couple killed in 100-vehicle wreck near Beaumont 1 / 50 Back to Gallery

As of Friday morning, authorities had not yet tallied all the vehicles involved in the massive Thanksgiving morning pileup on Interstate 10 west of Beaumont, but all of the estimated 100-plus wrecks have been removed from the roadway.

State troopers estimate that 80 to 120 people were injured. The injured were transported to hospitals in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Winnie, so an exact number remained unavailable early Friday.

Troopers blame dense fog in the area at the time, with a chain-reaction of crashes occurring soon after the first impact. The first crash was in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 10, with the second crash in the westbound lanes, officers say.

A Pearland couple was killed Thursday in a massive wreck west of Beaumont, which officials attributed to low visibility from dense early morning fog as well as speeding traffic.

At least four separate wrecks involving more than 100 vehicles, including many tractor-trailers and at least one tanker, had closed Interstate 10 near Beaumont for most of the day.

Officials said emergency calls started coming in about 8:45 a.m. while witnesses said the accidents happened around 8:30 a.m.

The accident, or accidents, started around 9 a.m. and by 9:30 the freeway was closed in both directions near mile marker 833, said Stephanie Davis, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety's Beaumont district. The crash site is close to the Jefferson/Chambers county line.

Late Thursday, DPS identified the dead as Vincent Leggio, 64, and his wife, Debra Leggio, 60. They died after their 2007 Chevrolet SUV was struck by an 18-wheeler, according to authorities.

At least four dozen people were injured, many critically.

Fifty-one people were transported to the hospital by Acadian Ambulances, their spokeswoman told the Beaumont Enterprise. Eight of them were for critical injuries.

At one point, both directions of the interstate were closed. The westbound lanes reopened about noon and the eastbound lanes about 5 p.m., DPS said.

Several of the injured were in critical condition, said Denise Richter, spokeswoman for Acadian Ambulance Service. She said that 22 ambulances from the Beaumont, Houston and Lake Charles, La. areas were called out to the accident. Richter reported the service had taken 51 people to Beaumont area hospitals.

The freeway was shut down for about 2 miles, Davis said.

How the pileup began wasn't immediately clear, but Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Deputy Rod Carroll told The Associated Press the fog was so thick that deputies didn't immediately realize they were dealing with multiple accidents.

"It is catastrophic," Carroll said. "I've got cars on top of cars."

Carroll said uninjured drivers tried to help as authorities sorted through the wreckage.

"It's just people helping people," Carroll said. "The foremost thing in this holiday season is how other travelers were helping us when we were overwhelmed, sitting and holding, putting pressure on people that were injured."

In Pearland, neighbors of the Leggios said the couple mostly kept to themselves.

"They were nice, quiet and conservative," said Andrew Rubio, who has lived next door to the couple for about two and a half years.

Rubio said he would occasionally speak with Vincent Leggio, who owned his own electric contracting company, when they were both watering their lawns. He believed Debra Leggio usually spent her days at home, babysitting her grandchildren.

The heavy fog reported in the Houston area most of Thanksgiving morning included a stretch of I-10 west of Beaumont. Davis said preliminary indications suggest the wrecks occurred as a result of a low visibility.

The fog started around midnight Wednesday, said meteorologist Phil Kuhn at the National Weather Service station in League City. Officially, the fog caused visibility of less than a quarter-mile, but meteorologists suspect it was likely closer to one-eighth of a mile.

While light fog is common this time of the year for the Beaumont area, Kuhn said Thursday's was thick.

"The caliber of fog we had today was severe," he said. The conditions for fog were ripe, he said, with heavy saturation in the air and no wind.

The same foggy conditions are expected for Galveston on Friday, he added.

Robert Stanton and Anita Hassan from Houston, and Julie Chang from Beaumont, contributed to this report.