140-car pile-up in Texas injures 51

At least 51 people were hospitalized and I-10 was closed after a pile-up involving at least 140 vehicles in dense fog near Beaumont, Texas, authorities said. The Texas Department of Safety said several hundred more cars were stuck in traffic at the scene of the chain-reaction pile-up, which began shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday. Police were urging drivers to find alternate routes to their destinations. The injured were taken to Christus Hospital St. Elizabeth and Baptist Hospital in Beaumont, the Medical Center of Southeast Texas, Christus Hospital St. Mary in Port Arthur, and a hospital in Baytown, Acadian Ambulance spokeswoman Denise Parker said. She said eight people were admitted in critical condition. The crashes occurred in the vicinity of Mile Marker 835 on the east-west highway, KBMT-TV, Beaumont, reported.