Snow Causes 50-Car Pileup In Pennsylvania

(CBS/AP)  A chain-reaction crash on a snowy interstate highway in western Pennsylvania involving about 50 vehicles, including an ambulance carrying patients, killed one person Thursday, officials said.

A 10-mile stretch of Interstate 90 near the New York border was closed for hours in both directions after the early afternoon accident. Several people were slightly injured, authorities said.

Among the vehicles involved were several tractor-trailers and tanker trucks. The trucks were not damaged, said Maria Finn, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

The motorists who was killed was trapped between a box truck and a tractor-trailer hauling cars.

"It was snowy. It probably interfered with visibility a little bit, and obviously traction, but weather may have contributed to it, but can't be completely blamed for it. People also have to drive with the weather in mind," Sgt. Adam Steinheiser, a Pennsylvania State Police spokesman, told CBS Radio News.

Forecasters predicted frigid temperatures in the eastern U.S. and a break from record highs in the western Plains on Friday, with mild conditions in much of the West.

"Winter has finally arrived in the East as it'll be bitterly cold today, especially in the Northeast where the high will only be around 10 across Upstate New York and a good portion of New England," says CBS News meteorologist George Cullen. "The coastal cities will get into the upper teens and lower 20's, but at least the lake effect snow is over for now."

An inch of snow was expected on the southern shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, more in some areas.

Boston officials were sending outreach teams into the streets to urge homeless people to stay in shelters. "People scrunched themselves up like penguins and waddled through downtown Boston" to work, reports Carl Stevens of CBS radio station WWJ-AM (audio). "Today is a reminder that this really is winter."

Snowmobile accidents in central New York state have claimed two lives and left a third person critically injured.

When it's this cold outside, everything slows down, both cars and people, reports Steve Cichon of CBS radio affiliate WBEN (audio) in Buffalo.

It wasn't a good morning to wait on a station platform waiting for a commuter train.

"You gotta move around. You stay still, you're gonna freeze!" said one Long Island Rail Road commuter in New York.

"I stay warm by wearing ... lots of layers and stuff. You do what you have to do," said another.

"Grin and bear it," said a third.

In the northwestern Plains, temperatures were expected to drop, ending a record-breaking mid-winter heat wave. However, warm temperatures were expected to continue in the southern Plains and Southeast.

"Temperatures have really warmed up across the Plains with Tulsa hitting the 50's in the last few days," says Cullen. "It'll be the same story for today, with 50's from Texas to Wyoming and South Dakota. However, it'll be turning much colder once again over the weekend."

Fewer than 3,000 homes and businesses remain without electrical service two weeks after a winter storm coated power poles and transmission lines in eastern Oklahoma with ice. Most of those still not receiving light and heat were located in rural areas of northeastern Oklahoma.

The state Insurance Department said Thursday that Oklahomans had filed more than $1 million in insurance claims for damage caused by the ice storm.

Much of the West was expected to be clear and mild.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Thursday ranged from a low of minus 26 degrees at Saranac Lake, N.Y., to a high of 85 degrees at Pomona, Calif.

[too_bad_4_u]

I drive theough PA about 4 times a year and I have to say that the roads in PA are alot better than some of the states I have been through, like Michigan for one. Those roads are the worst. I also know that going through a whiteout in this area is scary and it only takes one person to panic and it will cause a chain reaction. One minute you are doing the speed limit and the next you are in a whiteout. It takes time to get your vehicle slowed, but by then someone has already lost it and it is all over. It is an accident, nothing more. The squalls that go through this area are quick and mean, leaving ice, snow, and accidents, no matter how good you drive.

[terribayless-2009]

All I gotta say is I grew up in Rochester, NY. Was there until I was 19. I have been in Dallas, TX 20 years. I love it!

[rraso03]

george2221,
Like I said on my post, I grew up in upper state NY, to the east of Lake Ontario, ( I spent 10 years there) where on an average we would get 6-10 ft of snow every winter. Now, the weather may be lighter in PA where the accident occurs, but driving for an additional 15 minutes does not guarantee that the white-out will end. Like I said in my post the only way to avoid something like this is to not drive in this type of weather, and sometimes that is not possible. There should be no blame here and just compassion.

[daredevil1]

rb9178 there are no tractor trailers upside down in that video, but yes I do see some trailers damaged.

[rraso03]

I grew up in Upper New York State by Lake Ontario. Snow storms at this time of year are awful. If it was a white-out, no amount of driving slow and being carefuly could help. Things like this happen. In a white-out you usually cannot see your hand in front of your face, the only thing that could have avoided this was that no one would be on the road driving. Yes, the roads in PA are awful, but when you have 3 inches of snow and then the falling snow, with wind and ice on top of all of that the physical condition of the road is not the fault. I feel for everyone involved and do not miss the snowy conditions at all, thats why I live in AZ now.

[KOOLSTUF]

As a well-experienced OTR trucker (w/o an accident
caused by me in 56 years of driving) I'm urging
readers not to assume the SCHNEIDER driver was
driving at a speed excessive for conditions. We've
all seen "4 wheelers" pass on either side of big rigs, then cut in front of that truck, into its
"Safety Zone" -- especially as traffic slows down
to a bumper-to-bumper "clusterf--k". Too few
drivers know what distance is needed for a big rig
to stop, and those who do rarely focus on what conditions justify moderating their speed. At the
same time, far too many poorly trained (and even
totally untrained) truckers are out there. Big
trucking firms are so desperate for drivers they
knowingly send out unqualified drivers, even some
who can't speak, read, or write in English and probably hold a fraudulently acquired license.
Safe truckers are just as endangered by unsafe
drivers as you are. We're far more cautious in
reacting to changing conditions -- while slowing
down, other drivers become unpatient, change lanes
unsafely, and cause wrecks we're trying to avoid.

[lkemmler]

I live & work in the area of this accident, and when I heard it come over the scanner, it was a complete white out! As most of you know, all it takes is one person on the interstate to start a chain reaction accident in conditions like this.

Some people were trapped in their cars that the medics on the scene actually called for a trauma surgeon to report to the accident to perform an amputation on an elderly male, that they couldn't get out of the wreckage.

[actornaught]

rb, 'not damaged' was a quote, so the spokesperson might've been wrong.

either way, why bother getting wound up (witchhunt) about a minor detail?

[rb9178]

read you say no damage to trucks yet in 1 picture of this i see a tractor and flat bed truck upsite down.. but it was not damaged???? sounds like who ever wrote the peice did not know the faces.. what is new.

[luvny-2009]

Very sad that person between the trucks didn't have a chance and the truck behind it MAY have been tailgating. People just don't get it you have to drive SLOW and keep a lot of distance between cars. If that truck was going 20 mph I'll bet that person may have survived. The visibility may have been a big part also and I know if it's a white out you can not see anything in front of you until your right on top of it.