A dozen crushed cars and flipped 18-wheeler in horrific expressway pile-up... So how did no one get hurt?

At first glance, it looks like the most horrific tragedy, with a truck and a dozen cars crushed and mangled in a huge expressway pile-up.

So emergency responders who rushed to the scene on Indiana's Sam Jones Expressway were understandably stunned to find what appeared to be a miracle - not one person had been hurt in the crash.

In fact, the explanation was quite simple. The cars had not become entwined after a horrific road accident - the junk vehicles were already crushed and were being transported along the highway on the 18-wheeler when it braked a bit too hard and ejected them onto the street.

Carnage: A dozen crushed cars and a huge truck splayed across the expressway

Mess: The cars landed in a giant heap across the street, piled up on top of each other

The accident happened when a car U-turned in front of the truck on the expressway in Wayne Township, causing it to break suddenly.

The momentum caused the truck to tip over, spilling the cars onto the street in a giant heap.

Authorities could not believe no one had been hurt, after arriving at the scene expecting mass casualties and deaths.

Miracle? Emergency responders could not at first believe no one had been hurt in the crash

Smashed: One of the cars, which had anyway been crushed before the accident

Wayne Township Division Chief Michael Pruitt told Jalopnik.com 'When our dispatch originally received the call we heard multiple cars with possible entrapment, so when our first units arrived on the scene they saw [the scene] and it did look like multiple cars had been crashed.'

After calling in a heavy rescue truck and cautiously approaching the flipped vehicles, the mystified first responders began to realise the scene was not quite as they had expected.

Incredibly, none of the junk cars which smashed onto the street landed on any other cars passing by on the road, so the truck was the only vehicle which was damaged.

Relief: Emergency crews arrived on the scene expecting mass casualties and deaths

'It was a big sigh of relief when they realized they were junk cars,' Pruitt said.

After establishing that no one was hurt, the crews managed to clear the major thoroughfare and reopen the road in just two hours.

'I've been in the fire service for 25 years and this was the first time I've seen that big of a mess,' Pruitt added.

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