A freeway pileup involving 100 autos, together with large rigs, grinded an Oregon freeway to a damaging halt throughout a nasty whiteout snowstorm Thursday, in accordance with authorities.
The collection of crashes prompted a SUV fireplace and closed part of Interstate-84 the place quite a few drivers and passengers have been trapped of their autos late morning, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Workplace stated.
Pictures posted on-line by regulation enforcement confirmed the SUV burned from high to backside, although each occupant fled to security.
First responders additionally went car-to-car searching for victims in want. Whereas some accidents have been reported, it’s unclear how many individuals have been harm as of Thursday afternoon.
“Most of the reported crashes are non-injury or minor injury,” an Oregon state police spokesperson stated, in accordance with KATU. “There are no known fatal injuries or even serious injuries at this time.”
A pair caught within the pileup stated they couldn’t keep away from the wreckage.
“The visibility was so low by the time we got to the stopped traffic,” one of many vacationers informed KATU.
“We tried to cease; we ended up smashing right into a semi-truck and one other passenger truck and bought caught there for a minute.
“We heard somewhere crashes behind us, so we decided to go ahead and go ahead and go through, in between the semi-truck and the median.”
The situations have been so treacherous the Oregon Division of Transportation closed the freeway in each instructions between La Grande and Baker Metropolis – a stretch of roughly 50 miles between the 2 cities.
“Closures are due to blowing and drifting snow with visibility less than 500 feet,” the state DOT wrote earlier than later reopening that part.
