Photo: Facebook/Conway Volunteer Fire Department
Interstate 44 was a place of white horror this past weekend after a cold air front hit the region with wind, snow, and freezing. On Sunday, says the Missouri State Highway Patrol, there have been several pileups and crashes along the road, the biggest of them involving as many as 50 vehicles.
According to Time, there have been five fatalities on I-44 over the weekend and dozens injured. The cause of the 650 separate crashes which occurred over the weekend was the rapid freezing of the 2 inches of snow on the road.
“The initial amount of light snow that melted on the roads froze as temperatures hit the freezing point,” Gene Hatch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service told Time. “The roads went from wet to icy very quickly, and once the water on the roads froze, the snow that was falling began sticking, making it even slicker.”
The 50-car pileup occurred near the city of Marshfield. According to police, two of the five people killed in Missouri last weekend were involved in this crash.
Drone footage of the pileup was captured by the Conway Volunteer Fire Department and posted on Facebook. The video shows a long line of twisted vehicles, trucks and passenger vehicles smashed together in small groups, from place to place intertwined with emergency services vehicles.
Other photos posted on Facebook by several users who were on the scene show cars stacked on top of each other.
According to police, the number of cars involved in the events on Interstate 44 was much higher than 50. “Besides the 60 to 80 damaged vehicles, another two dozen vehicles became blocked and unable to move," patrol Sgt. Jason Pace told the source.
By Tuesday, most of the debris from the crash was removed from I-44, but similar slippery road conditions are expected in the following days.
“The initial amount of light snow that melted on the roads froze as temperatures hit the freezing point,” Gene Hatch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service told Time. “The roads went from wet to icy very quickly, and once the water on the roads froze, the snow that was falling began sticking, making it even slicker.”
The 50-car pileup occurred near the city of Marshfield. According to police, two of the five people killed in Missouri last weekend were involved in this crash.
Drone footage of the pileup was captured by the Conway Volunteer Fire Department and posted on Facebook. The video shows a long line of twisted vehicles, trucks and passenger vehicles smashed together in small groups, from place to place intertwined with emergency services vehicles.
Other photos posted on Facebook by several users who were on the scene show cars stacked on top of each other.
According to police, the number of cars involved in the events on Interstate 44 was much higher than 50. “Besides the 60 to 80 damaged vehicles, another two dozen vehicles became blocked and unable to move," patrol Sgt. Jason Pace told the source.
By Tuesday, most of the debris from the crash was removed from I-44, but similar slippery road conditions are expected in the following days.
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