The major wreck shut down traffic Interstate 64 for some hours after what seemed to be a chain-reaction crash.
A huge highway pileup in York County, Virginia, Sunday morning led injuries on at least 51 people and a sizable traffic snarl.
The 69-vehicle wreck shut down traffic on Interstate 64 following a chain-reaction accident, according to the Virginia State Police. Though officials are still investigating what resulted in the collision, state police stated there were fog and ice conditions on Queens Creek bridge when the accident took place at about 7:51 a.m. local time.
Police initially stated that there were 35 people injured and taken to hospitals but then updated that number to 51 people in the afternoon.
The injuries range from minor to life-threatening, police stated. No deaths were reported.
A representative for Riverside Regional Medical Center tweeted Sunday that the center was treating 25 of those injured, and one per was in serious condition.
Bray Hollowell, 18, was on his way to pick up his sister from Richmond when he stated he observed cars spinning on black ice. Hollowell informed NBC News that he couldn’t brake in time to prevent hitting the car in front of him, then got hit by another car in the back.
“I think it still would have been an initial accident, but I don’t think there would have been as bad of a pile-up if there wasn’t fog,” he stated. “I would have seen that accident and braked far before.”
During the accident, Hollowell stated that people started to leave their cars in an effort to stop vehicles from coming down the road.
“There was one lady to the left of me and she tried to get out of her car too soon,” Hollowell stated. “And she had her door open, and she was hit by another car.”
The teen attempted to flag down paramedics for the woman and stayed with her. Hollowell was capable to get out of the accident unscathed and waited for his mother to pick him up.
Both lanes were shut down for some time before officials could reopen the east-bound lanes in the late morning hours. The westbound lane, where the accident took place, wasn’t cleared until about 3:30 p.m., several hours after the wreck began.
Drivers were asked to not travel on the highway, which could make their holiday trips more difficult.
Over 104 million Americans are expected to travel by automobiles in this holiday season, the most on record, according to INRIX.
