Traffic Pileup on the I-15 Kills 9, Wounds 23

Ceres, Federation of Asteroidal Polities -- 28 Feb. 2057:  Local officials are asking transports travelling between Martian and Jovian space to avoid Interplanetary Corridor 15 as disaster response teams clean up the aftermath of a serious collision that has taken 9 lives this day.

Apparently, a convoy of jury-rigged settler craft bound for Ganymede and points outward was decimated when a 20-megaton tanker hauling helium3 from the gas mines of Vespene Station to a processing plant on Phobos lost control during a corrective burn.  Most of the low-grade ships were unable to sufficiently alter their trajectories to avoid the massive barge and several were destroyed.  Debris from the accident is now spread throughout the corridor and has caused several more transports to crash or veer wildly off course; it is estimated that some stray vehicles may be unrecoverable within their biological crew and passengers' expected lifetimes, though emergency digitization efforts are under way.

According to crash victim Gelfer din Slardvorg, who spoke to us in Mercy Hope Emergency Hospital in Ceres, "It was like falling off a cliff.  You see that huge thing rushing at you and you try to get out of its way, but it's too late -- nothing you can do.  I was one of the lucky ones; a rail sheared through the cabin of the ship, just missed my face too.  Thank Jesus Mohammed, my exosuit was handy and I had enough air in the tanks to last until the ambulance got there.  I saw other pilgrims freeze to death right in front of me ... bleeding from their eyes.  Such terrible carnage."

The office of FAP Symposiarch Natron Valbermard has issued a statement of condolences to the victims of the tragedy and their families.  The Symposiarch also promises an investigation into the causes of the crash.  It is not known at this time if mechanical failure or alterant abuse were involved.  Follow-up inquiries to the Department of Public Safety and to Omnicor Hypercorp LLC., the owner of the tanker, recieved no response.

Among the casualties of today's crash was noted author Framlix Tibulon, who had just accepted the post of Poet Laureate to the Saturnine Confederacy.  Tibulon died in surgery in Mercy Hope at the age of 27 person-years.

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