That's my girl (not the headline!!)

Monday, January 19, 2009

2 Dead in 40-Vehicle Pileup on Interstate 70

MYERSVILLE, Md. — A pileup of 35 cars and five tractor-trailers on a
snowy Maryland highway killed two people Monday and seriously injured
at least a dozen, state police said.

Snow was at least partly to blame for the 12:30 p.m. crash on
Interstate 70 near South Mountain in northwestern Maryland, said State
Police spokeswoman Elena Russo. An inch-and-a-half of snow quickly
fell around the same time as the pileup.

Twelve seriously injured people were taken to Washington County
Hospital, Russo said.

Late Monday, troopers said they were looking for a brown minivan,
which might have damage on the passenger side, that was traveling west
on I-70 shortly before the crash and left the scene.

State police said the minivan may have been involved in the initial
crash which led to the pileup.

Jessica Granek, 21, of Columbia, was driving west with three friends
to go skiing at Whitetail as visibility was getting worse from the
snow, which left a slushy mess on the ground.

"We started to see brake lights, and I saw a blue SUV turn hard and
become perpendicular to the road," Granek said. "That made everyone
put their brakes on and (they) started sliding. We were fortunate to
veer off the right side of road."

She described a scene "out of a movie or TV show" with cars spinning
out of control and "kept getting nailed from every side." Cars veered
off into a wooded area, and Granek saw a tractor-trailer that "flew by
everyone and went into the woods." An oil tanker jumped a guardrail.

Somehow, Granek's car was untouched. When a tanker narrowly missed it,
she and her friends ran into the woods away from the road. She called
911, and within minutes, emergency crews were on the scene.

Granek and her friends were among 71 people, including infants and the
elderly, who were taken to a Red Cross shelter in Washington County,
said Julie Barr-Strasburg, executive director of the county's Red
Cross chapter.

Most were waiting to retrieve their vehicles from the pileup, she
said. The Red Cross was prepared to keep the shelter open until at
least midnight, she said.

"We are in close contact with emergency management and we are hearing
that it will be quite some time before the road is open," she said
late Monday afternoon.

Most of the people taken to the shelter suffered from "bumps and
bruises" and received first aid, she said.