CAMERON, MO. ? Drivers temporarily blinded by smoke from a grass fire ran into each other on Interstate Highway 35 near Cameron, causing a 14-car pileup that injured nine people.

After the smoke cleared Friday, cars, vans and two tractor-trailers were strewn along the southbound lanes of I-35, about four miles north of Cameron. Observers said they were stunned that no one was killed.

“We saw the smoke for quite some time,” said Harold Vandersee. “We slowed way down, and all of a sudden you couldn’t see the car in front of you.”

Vandersee and wife, Veniece, were traveling from Oelwein, Iowa, to Oklahoma to visit their son for Easter when they were involved in the pileup.

“I didn’t think we were going to make it through (the accident) while we were getting hit,” Mrs. Vandersee said. “It was very scary.”

Vandersee said it felt like their car was hit three times. One of the car’s tires flew over their hood.

The smoke and damage lingered for hours after the accident occurred about 2 p.m. The northbound lanes of the interstate were closed for about 45 minutes, while the southbound lanes didn’t reopen for about three hours.

One small, red car landed atop another small, red car. Two girls who were in the bottom car, who were wearing seat belts, walked away without injury.

“If anyone would have been in the back of (the car on top), it would have been a fatality,” said Sgt. Sheldon Lyon of the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Lyon said the blaze apparently was started by a muffler that fell off a car on nearby U.S. Highway 69. The fire then spread east from U.S. 69 to the interstate.

The smoke totally obscured vision for about a quarter mile on the interstate. Some cars slowed down, others stopped and others continued into the smoke, causing the chain-reaction accident in the southbound lanes, the patrol said.

A brother and sister from Humboldt, Iowa, were taken by air ambulance to Kansas City area hospitals. Brennon Naeve, 13, was taken to Children’s Mercy Hospital with serious injuries. His sister, Nashay, 17, was taken to Liberty Hospital, with serious injuries. Their father, Brent Naeve, was taken to Liberty Hospital with minor injuries.

Lyon said the teens were in the back seat of the van when it was struck by a United Parcel Service tractor-trailer.

“The truck’s grill came into the middle seat of the van,” Lyon said.

The other six victims were taken to Cameron Community Hospital. None of the crash victims appeared to have life-threatening injuries, Lyon said.

Lyon said the crash team will use information from a global positioning satellite to analyze and recreate how the accident happened, including the exact location of every vehicle. The accident report will take up to 30 days to complete.