POTTSVILLE, Pa. (AP) 鈥� Tractor-trailers and other vehicles slammed into each other during a snow squall on an icy interstate in Pennsylvania on Monday creating a pileup that killed at least three people and injured more than a dozen.
The crash on Interstate 81 was captured in videos posted on social media that show drivers and passengers lining the snowy road and jumping out of the way as a cascade of crashes unfolds with multiple vehicles colliding in less than a minute.
Dr. David J. Moylan, the Schuylkill County coroner, said three fatalities had been confirmed by late afternoon and that number could rise because still-burning fires were impeding rescuers.
In one video, an out of control tractor-trailer smashed into a large dump truck turning it nearly 180 degrees, another large truck caught fire and spewed black smoke into the air, and an SUV struck a passenger car sending it spinning narrowly past a person standing on the shoulder in snow and fog.
The Schuylkill County Office of Emergency Management said the crash in northeast Pennsylvania happened around 10:30 a.m. Monday. John Blickley, the agency's deputy emergency management coordinator, said officials believe a snow squall clouded visibility and likely contributed to the accident.
Estimates of the number of vehicles involved from the emergency management agency and state police ranged between 40 and 60, including multiple tractor trailers. Blickley said emergency personnel from four different counties took about 20 patients to area hospitals for treatment. Three tractor trailers carrying unknown cargo were on fire when emergency personnel arrived and some smaller vehicles were also on fire, he said.
Pennsylvania State Police Trooper David Beohm said Monday afternoon that police hadn鈥檛 been able to investigate yet because a fire was still burning among a number of crashed cars and trucks.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 do anything while there鈥檚 still an active fire going," he said. Fire units on the scene included a steady stream of water tankers because 鈥渋n the middle of nowhere, you have to bring your own water ... there鈥檚 not a fire hydrant out here anywhere.鈥�
The highway was snow-covered when the snow squall came through, Boehm said.
鈥淎ll it takes is one person to crash into something and you have to pull off the road, but when you continue to drive at highway speed, this is what happens,鈥� he said.
People whose vehicles were in the crash and the 鈥渨alking wounded鈥� were taken to the Wegman鈥檚 distribution center in an industrial park near the crash, he said, and a reunification center had been set up at the Goodwill Fire Company No. 1 in Minersville for people to meet friends or relatives or arrange accommodations.
The National Weather Service had warned of 鈥渘umerous brief heavy snow squalls with very poor visibility.鈥�
鈥淭he squalls will quickly reduce the visibility to under one-half of a mile and coat the roads with snow,鈥� forecasters said, urging drivers to get off the road if possible or turn on hazard lights 鈥渁nd gradually slow down to avoid a chain reaction vehicular accident.鈥�
Mike Colbert, a forecaster with the National Weather Service office in State College, said the weather service started issuing warnings for snow squalls a few years ago, and pileups of the kind being reported were the reason they began doing so.
鈥淭hey are very heavy snow showers where if you are driving into them, you can go from partly cloudy or sunny skies into an instant blizzard in a matter of seconds. That鈥檚 why they are so dangerous,鈥� he said.
The Associated Press
