Three people killed in Georgia highway accident - Bayoubuzz (subscription)

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Three people were killed on Wednesday in a 27-vehicle pile-up on a foggy interstate highway in Georgia that links Atlanta and Savannah, officials said.

The crash, involving a tanker truck that ruptured and caught fire, shut down I-16 in both directions about 30 miles southeast of Macon, according to the Georgia Department of Public Safety .

The Georgia State Troopers office confirmed three fatalities and nine injuries from four separate crashes.

"As other vehicles approached the first crash, separate chain-reaction crashes then occurred," the State Troopers office said in a statement.

"I saw the fuel tanker plow into an 18-wheeler 15 feet away from me and burst into flames," Joseph White Jr. , who was driving on I-16, told The Courier Herald newspaper in Dublin, Georgia .

"I'm looking back and the tanker exploded," said White, 45. "Pieces of the tanker flew toward me on the freeway,