CLARION, Pa. (AP) – An 18-vehicle pileup in whiteout conditions Wednesday afternoon killed two people in western Pennsylvania and left dozens injured, authorities said.
Both victims died after leaving their vehicles amid the chain-reaction crash on Interstate 80. One was struck and the other collapsed and died of internal injuries while looking for his children, who had been ejected, a coroner said. The children were found unharmed.
Nine trucks, several of them tractor-trailers, and nine cars were involved in the crash, which occurred at 1:40 p.m. in the highway’s westbound lanes in Clarion Township, state police said.
“It was carnage,” Clarion County Coroner Terry Shaffer said. “(There was) metal everywhere. There were bustled axels, trucks totaled. One tanker trunk didn’t have any wheels on it.”
“The lady whose husband died said they just kept getting hit and banged around,” he said.