19 Die on Snowy Midwest Roads

Heavy, blowing snow created a driver’s nightmare in the Midwest on Saturday, contributing to as many as 19 traffic deaths, as a rush of cold air ended several weeks of unseasonably mild weather from the Great Lakes to New England.

Traffic accidents blamed on bad weather killed 13 people in Ohio, nine of them in one chain-reaction pileup on Interstate 75 outside Dayton, three in Illinois, one in Indiana, one in Michigan and one in Kentucky, authorities said.

The chain-reaction crash on I-75 near Tripp City, Ohio, involved two tractor-trailer rigs and 16 other vehicles, police said.

In Illinois, three people were killed and at least seven others injured Saturday in a 15-vehicle pileup on I-80 west of Peru, hospital officials and state police said.

In northern Kentucky, at least one person was killed and 21 others injured in a pileup on I-75 near Walton.

Hundreds of vehicles were involved in chain-reaction crashes in Michigan. A pileup on I-94 in Berrien County killed one person.

Northern Indiana received up to a foot of snow Saturday, and blowing and drifting snow reduced visibility to near zero at times over much of the state, authorities said. The weather contributed to a pileup of 20 cars on I-74 near Greensburg.