Thursday, January 23, a Michigan couple and a Chicago man died in a massive accident that occurred in white-out conditions on a stretch of interstate highway in Indiana. The pileup involved more than 40 vehicles. Law enforcement reported that there were 18 semitrailers and two box trucks in the pileup. Twenty-six passenger cars were also in the wreckage. Forty-six vehicles in total were involved in the collision, and cranes and wreckers had to be called in to work on clearing lanes. The pileup extended for about a mile on this highway that goes from Chicago to Detroit.
The husband and wife from Grand Rapids, Michigan who were killed in the pileup were both in their sixties. The Chicago resident who passed away was 65, and his Golden Retriever that was in the car at the time also died. The coroner reported that all three were killed by blunt force trauma from impact with semi-trucks.
As tragic as this accident is, emergency personnel and law enforcement have said dozens more could have been killed considering the conditions. And many were able to walk away from the pileup. But at least 22 people were injured in the wreck, and two of those injured were reported to be in critical condition. One those critically injured was a man trapped in a car that had semi-trucks on top of it. It took hours to rescue him from the wreckage. That was the final rescue from the accident.
Medical personnel who treated those injured reported that many injuries were sustained from impact with a steering wheel, window, or windshield. Eight people were reported to have broken bones and lacerations. According to reports, the few children who were injured in the crash sustained minor injuries.
A teenager who was interviewed by the Associated Press said that he saw the accident start behind him. According to what he could see, a semi-truck was skidding and ended up jack-knifing in a middle lane, striking another semi-truck, triggering the chain of events that started with other trucks colliding into one another. An official recognized the severe emotional distress suffered by those who witnessed the accident and were trapped in awful conditions. People had to wait for several hours in stormy weather that stayed at about 10 degrees, their cars forced to a standstill because of the pileup. Law enforcement said that city buses came in to offer a heated place to wait out the cleanup.
According to a meteorologist from the National Weather Service, two inches of snow was falling every hour, with drivers having only a quarter-mile of visibility because of the lake-effect snow. Law enforcement said that the horrible weather conditions contributed to the accident. Emergency responders had to navigate not only the adverse road and weather conditions, but the entangled vehicles and substances being spilled as well. Wrecked tractor-trailers were spewing green diesel fuel all over the scene.
There are nearby residents who have faulted the accident on a failure to maintain roads in a safe condition, failing to keep them plowed and salted in order to prevent these treacherous conditions. That may be the case in some accidents, but according to the director of Indiana's Department of Transportation, that interstate had been both plowed and salted less than a half hour before the pileup. This would seem to indicate then the terrible severity of the weather. Yet the highway was kept open.
If you have been injured in a vehicle or trucking accident, or in an accident on dangerous roads, then contact a personal injury lawyer from the blog to learn about your potential right to compensation!