Maps, Tweets: Was I-80 Crash Caused by Fog?

UPDATE: WJAC-TV is reporting that mechanical problems were responsible for the accident.

A major accident this morning (involving at least one tractor trailer on fire) halting traffic on I-80 westbound in Central Pennsylvania occurred near an area of valley fog (which is typical this time of year). You could see some fog in the valley behind the accident on the PennDot webcam this morning:

The tweets that came out did not include any eyewitnesses but seemed to indicate that the accident happened around 5 AM, but no photos were tweeted until past 7.

Unfortunately, if the accident happened at 5 or earlier, it is really tough for meteorologists to find out whether or not there was fog there. Fog is only measured on a local basis by Visible Satellite images, which are dark at night. The best we can do is look at where the fog was at 8:30 AM this morning, via visible satellite:

The "x" in the closeup shows the approximate location of the accident -- definitely not in the fog now, but valley fog shrinks at sunrise, so could the fog have been that far up the mountain at 5 AM? It's possible, though the visible satellite animation (shown below) doesn't show a rapidly decreasing fog area. I can't say for sure whether fog was to blame but it could have been a factor, depending on how far traffic was backed up. I-80 in Pennsylvania is plagued by accidents due to fog in the Spring & Fall, drenching thunderstorms in the Summer, and frequent snow squalls in the winter.