Numerous Pileups, One Involving Up to forty Vehicles, Close Snowy Indiana, Pennsylvania Interstates
January thirteen 2016 07:45 AM EDT
At least three pileups closed interstates in Indiana and Pennsylvania on Tuesday, but all affected freeways were reopened by Tuesday night. One of the pileups involved as many as forty vehicles in two collisions along snowy Interstate seventy four in southeastern Indiana.
The very first crash occurred Tuesday morning in the westbound lanes of I-70, the Indiana State Police said. WHIO.com reported four injuries from the incident , a violated gam being the most severe.
Several semis were involved in the collision , WISH-TV reported. Officials have not proclaimed an official cause of the crash, but roads in the area were snow-covered Tuesday morning due to latest snowfall.
“It was an incredible chain reaction,” Hope Berndt, who witnessed the pileup, told WISH-TV.
The Indiana State Police confirmed to The Weather Channel that the freeway was closed just east of the Centerville Road exit at mile marker 145.Five in Wayne County. I-70 was reopened after a 7.5-hour closure, according to the Associated Press.
I-74 Pileup
Less than an hour after the I-70 collision occurred, a 2nd pileup involving as many as forty vehicles was reported along Interstate seventy four in southeastern Indiana, the state police told The Weather Channel. Officials said the pileup was actually two separate crashes that spanned about a half-mile of roadway.
The collision, which involved several jackknifed semis, led to the hours-long closure of the interstate in both directions in Dearborn County. Six people were hospitalized following this pileup , police spokesperson Sgt. Stephen Wheeles told Wave three News, but none of the injuries were considered life-threatening.
“Your life flashes in front of your face,” Robert Honeycutt, a truck driver who was injured in the crash, told Wave three News. “There was all kinds of thoughts going through my head.”
Honeycutt suffered a violated kneecap, and it took officials more than an hour to pull him from his mangled semi, the report added.
South of Indianapolis, the southbound lanes of I-65 were also closed Tuesday morning due to a wreck near State Route 44.
I-70 Pileups in Pennsylvania
Three separate pileups occurred Tuesday within a 1-mile span along Interstate seventy in Washington County, Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh. According to WTAE.com, these three collisions involved a total of thirty one vehicles , and albeit there were several injuries, all were minor.
Drivers who were involved in the wreck said weather conditions quickly became dangerous along the freeway. Visibilities rapidly plummeted, and the interstate was slick and snow-covered , the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said.
“I was attempting to figure out what had actually happened,” Nicholas Matz, who was involved in one of the pileups, told the Tribune-Review, adding that he later thought, “I don’t want to die.”