Heavy hail triggers 18-vehicle pile-up
- A sudden hailstorm on Sunday caused an 18-vehicle chain-reaction crash at the exit of the Gedo tunnel in Somahoz, on Cantabria’s A-67 toward Santander. (infobae.com) - 20 people suffered minor injuries, tunnel-emergency protocol was activated, and traffic kept moving on the left lane after damaged vehicles were cleared. (infobae.com) - The storm then tracked east toward the A-8 between Santander and Castro Urdiales, where Aemet warned drivers about intense showers and hail. (infobae.com)
A hailstorm turned an ordinary Sunday drive in Cantabria into a pile-up in minutes. The crash happened at about 4 p.m. on May 3, just outside the Gedo tunnel in So(infobae.com) for minor injuries — which tells you how quickly conditions went bad. (infobae.com)n the A-67, the Autovía de la Meseta, at the exit of the Gedo tunnel in Somahoz, part of Los Corrales de Buelna in Cantabria. That matters because some early descriptions blurred together the crash site and the weather warning zone that came after it. (infobae.com) ### What set off the pile-up? A sudden burst of hail. The vehicles were involved in a rear-end chain collision right as the storm hit, which is exactly the kind of crash you get when visibility drops, the road surface changes fast, and drivers don’t have enough stopping distance. Tunnel exi(infobae.com)earlier. (infobae.com) ### How bad was it? Serious enough for the regional government to activate the tunnel protocol, but not the worst-case version people fear when they hear “18 vehicles.” No(infobae.com) 061 ambulances. That’s a big emergency footprint for an incident that, thankfully, stayed in the minor-injury category. (infobae.com) ### Did they shut the road? Not fully. That’s one of the more surprising details. Even with 18 vehicles involved, authorities said the A-67 did not have to be completely closed. T(infobae.com)utdown. (infobae.com) ### Why are people talking about the A-8 then? Because the storm kept moving. After the crash, Aemet said Los Corrales had picked up 16.2 liters of rain in an hour and warned that the same storm cell was shifting east, toward the A-8 south of Santander Bay. Drivers between Santander (infobae.com)d in the storm’s path. (infobae.com) ### Was there already weather concern in Cantabria? Yes. Cantabria’s emergency service had been posting yellow alerts for rain and storms in late April, including w(infobae.com)d being theoretical and turned into a real multi-car motorway crash. (112.cantabria.es) ### Why does hail cause this kind of crash so fast? Because hail is a double hit. First, visibility can collapse almost instantly. Then grip goes weird — not always full ice-slick, but slick enough that normal following distances stop being enough. Add motorway speeds and a tunnel exit, and one hard brake can ripple backward through a line of cars like a snapped zipper. That’s usually how these pile-ups start. (infobae.com) ### Bottom line? This was a weather-driven motorway crash, not a mystery mechanical failure or a huge infrastructure collapse. But it’s a sharp reminder that a short hail burst can overwhelm traffic in minutes — and that the danger can move with the storm from one major road to the next. (infobae.com)provoca-un-accidente-entre-18-vehiculos-con-20-heridos-leves-en-cantabria/))
