Inside Saskatchewan's crazy highway pileup

So what's it like to be smack in the middle of a 31-vehicle pileup on a Saskatchewan highway?

Eliesa Tuiloma can tell you. 

He was driving through fog on Highway 16 near Maymont, Sask., on Saturday when a chain reaction of collisions hit northbound and southbound lanes. Some 40 people were injured.

Emergency workers say it could have easily been the deadliest crash of the year in Saskatchewan. 

As it happened, no one was killed despite the numerous injuries..

Heading to North Battleford from Regina, Tuiloma recalled the fog becoming thicker and thicker.

A semi slowed down in front of him, and "pretty much everyone followed suit."  That's when "crap hit the fan," said Tuiloma, 24.

"It happened all so fast. I saw two guys standing in the fast-moving lane and they waved me down at the last second, so I swerved to miss the vehicle that hit the Co-op tanker truck," he said. 

Luckily for Tuiloma, he was able to stop without crashing after running over some debris.

Tuiloma remembered seeing an elderly woman pulling up behind him and right after that, people started crashing into each further back. 

It was 45 seconds to a minute of constant thumps, he said.

He said a semi crashed into another vehicle and a tractor trailer slowed down and smashed into three vehicles that were "glued" together.

He said people stopped in the opposite lane, and they started a different pileup, but Tuiloma could only hear the noises of people crashing.

"[I'm] panicking and in shock as I'm sitting in the vehicle," he said. "And these vehicles — you just see debris flying past your vehicle because people behind you are kind of crashing into each other."

Helicopters and ambulances took 13 of the injured to hospitals in Saskatoon and North Battleford.