East Coast Storm Causes 116-Car Pileup, Many Other Wrecks

A wet, slushy snowstorm swept up the East Coast on Thursday, closing schools and highways and causing scores of accidents, including a deadly 116-car pileup outside the nation’s capital.

At least one person was killed in the huge crash on Interstate 95 near Quantico, about 40 miles south of Washington, Virginia state police said. More than 100 people were injured as the wind-driven snow dropped visibility to near zero. One official said the wreckage stretched over three miles.

“The scope of this is so large, we only know what’s going on on the back end via radio on the front end,” said Charlie Robertson, a spokesman for the fire department in nearby Stafford.

Roads across the East Coast were coated with icy rain and snow, but forecasters said snow accumulations would be limited to about 6 inches in most cases.

The worst of the storm hit New York at rush hour, making the commute dangerous.

The combination of snow, frigid temperatures and icy roads caused traffic jams in the heart of the city. Cars were bumper-to-bumper on Madison Avenue for dozens of blocks. Taxis were spinning their wheels on the ice.

The city’s tunnels and bridges were jammed, while New York area airports had lengthy delays.

North of Baltimore, a five-mile stretch of southbound I-95, one of the nation’s busiest highways, was closed for more than two hours after a series of crashes.

“I’ve seen a lot of bad weather, a lot of wrecks, a lot of killing. On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a 10,” said Jim Roberts, 61, a trucker who got stuck behind a crash on Interstate 64 east of Charlottesville, Va.

Elsewhere on I-64, a tractor-trailer carrying tires, another carrying frozen food and two other trucks collided, dumping their cargo on the road. The tires caught fire and burned for several hours, sending out thick plumes of black smoke. Eight people were injured.

By noon, the interstate was littered with abandoned vehicles as people hitched rides with police to get out of the storm.

The fast-moving storm also forced schools in West Virginia and the Philadelphia area to close early. There were several multi-vehicle pileups in New Jersey, where state transportation spokesman John Dourgarian said 1,200 plows were trying to keep up with the bad weather.

In Atlantic City, N.J., the slippery snow led to dozens of accidents. “We had 30 to 40 of them, one right after another,” police Sgt. Michael Tullio said. “It’s a real weird kind of snow. It hit the streets, and since then nobody can get any traction.”

The crash outside Washington began when a car collided with a tractor-trailer and caught fire. Drivers couldn’t see other cars and drove into the crash one by one, authorities said.

“There were cars passing us going 60 mph,” said Reshea Pierce, who was driving from Philadelphia to North Carolina. “The next thing you know everything is coming to a halt. It was like dominoes. It was just wreck after wreck after wreck.”

A Virginia transportation department official said there were “whiteout” conditions when the first collision occurred shortly before 11 a.m.