MOSCOW, January 8 (Sputnik) – Three people died and dozens were injured in an 18-vehicle pileup on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania due to poor weather conditions, according to an Associated Press report.
Two people died at the scene of the crash and a third passed away en route to a hospital, the agency quotes Clarion County Emergency Services director Vern Smith as saying.
"There was a whiteout. There was very heavy snow at the time with visibility virtually zero," he explained.
Of the two people who died at the site, one was struck and fatally injured after leaving his vehicle, and the other died of internal injuries while looking for his children, who had been ejected from his car during the collision, according to Clarion County Coroner Terry Shaffer.
"It was carnage," AP quotes him as saying. "(There was) metal everywhere. There were bustled axels, trucks totaled. One tanker trunk didn’t have any wheels on it."
At least 20 of the injured were being taken by bus to area hospitals, and three have reportedly been sent to Pittsburgh hospitals with serious injuries.
Authorities say poor weather conditions resulted in a pileup of nine cars and nine trucks, including several tractor-trailers.
Two of the tractor-trailers involved were empty, while one carried brine, one held bath products and a third was loaded with food, Vern Smith said. The other vehicles included a UPS double trailer and a flatbed carrying pipes.
The National Weather Service had issued warnings about lake effect snow squalls in the area Wednesday afternoon. The squalls drifted southwest from Lake
Erie, which is responsible for the region's higher-than-average snowfalls.
