3 People Confirmed Dead In Snowy Pileup Of Dozens Of Vehicles In Pennsylvania, Usa (Photos,Video)

 

Three people have been confirmed dead and 20 have been taken to hospital following a 50 to 60-vehicle pile-up on a Pennsylvania interstate, officials said Monday. A mass casualty event was declared following the crash on I-81 in Schuykill County on Monday morning.

The crash was reported just before 11 am near Exit 116 of the icy interstate. The road has since been reopened.

Shortly after the accident was reported, Matt Catrillo, a journalist at a local radio station, tweeted that multiple vehicles were still on fire and people trapped.

Responding rescue officials said that following the crash, emergency workers walked nearly six miles of icy, snow-covered highway to free motorists from their vehicles - many of which were on fire.

The crash's cause is currently unknown, but the area had experiencing severe snow conditions at the time, and motorists seen in footage recorded at the scene of the crash can be heard complaining of the dangerous weather, which left drivers with virtually no visibility.

Shocking video captured from the scene of the crash shows multiple trucks and cars smashing into a heap of damaged vehicles already blocking the road.

The pile of twisted metal, combined with conditions of low-visibility and poor traction caused by the weather, the footage shows, sets off a chain reaction of crashes over the course of several minutes, ensnaring several trucks and more than a dozen cars.

At one point in the footage, while cars are being propelled along the ice from the force of several collisions, a person is almost struck by his own car after it is hit by another vehicle sent reeling during the chaos.

The cars narrowly miss the driver, who flees along with several others into woods flanking the highway.

'This is ridiculous,' said Mike Moye, who filmed the clip on Facebook Live after coming across the crash.