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40-Vehicle Pileup Shuts Down Indiana Highway I-74 After Snow Squall Causes Whiteout – ABC News

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Indiana State Police, Versailles District 42

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Forty vehicles crashed into each other during a massive pileup today that fully shut down highway I-74,in southeast Indiana, according to Indiana State Police’s Versailles District forty two Office.

A “unexpected squall of strong snow caused whiteout conditions” on the highway near the Indiana-Ohio state line around eleven a.m. today, according to Indiana State Police Sgt. Stephen Wheeles.

Wheeles told ABC News today that a semi-tractor trailer jackknifed because of the slick conditions, causing an initial pileup of about thirty vehicles. A 2nd pileup involving about ten vehicles happened less than a quarter mile behind the original one, Wheeles said.

“Six people on scene were transported to local area hospitals for non-life menacing injuries, which is amazing, considering the circumstances,” Wheeles said. “The very first pileup involved mostly commercial vehicles, and a lot of trucks were left in chunks. There’s fairly extensive harm on most vehicles in the pileup, and some are fully totaled.”

The officer added that both eastbound and westbound lanes of I-74 were closed for hours. Officials re-opened the eastbound lane around Five:30 p.m. local time, however, the westbound lane is still closed, even however the vehicles involved in the accident have been eliminated.

Driver Sean Selman, who said he witnessed the crash unfold before his eyes, told ABC affiliate WCPO that a “wall of snow” appeared and he attempted to veer off towards the median to miss the pileup, but he hit one of the trucks.

Indiana State Police, Versailles District 42

“As soon as I hopped out, semi (trucks) just kept coming and plunging into the pile,” Selman told WCPO. “There were cars trapped under where they were hitting.”

Selman added that he and other motorists attempted to talk to some of the other drivers who were pinned in their vehicles.

“There was a trucker that was pinned pretty bad, but we were talking to him,” he said. “I crawled under the next trailer, and there was a car underneath that — embarked talking to him.”

The Indiana State Police has received over one hundred calls for service since midnight today, mostly as a result of slick road conditions, the department said in a news release.

Police added that drivers traveling in winter weather should “be sure to permit extra following distance inbetween yourself and the vehicle in front” of them.

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