Chain-reaction wreck sparked by whiteout leaves dozens injured

Recipe for mayhem: wet and snowy roads, sudden squalls and unprepared drivers.
WEST MIDDLESEX, Pa. -- Dozens of vehicles piled up Sunday and closed a portion of Interstate 80 as winter bore down on a two-mile stretch of the highway, about eight miles from the Ohio state line.
Several people were taken to area hospitals in the aftermath of the mayhem, but there were no fatalities, Pennsylvania State Police said.
The chain-reaction pileup took place at about 11:15 a.m. Sunday. State police were expecting to be at the scene until nearly midnight, and were still trying to tally the number of vehicles involved, a trooper said.
Eyewitnesses told The Vindicator that 90 to 100 vehicles closed the westbound and eastbound lanes, and that nine tractor-trailers were involved.
They said there was a whiteout just as the accident unfolded.
Reopening
Traffic was backed up afterward, by some estimates, for more than 20 miles. The eastbound lanes were reopened about 5 p.m., state police said. The westbound lanes reopened shortly after 8 p.m., police said.
In his 12 years with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Ken Pochatko has seen a lot of accident scenes -- but nothing like this mess.
"Being out here and seeing all this, it's just hard to believe we didn't have a lot of fatalities and serious injuries," he said. "It ought to be a lot worse than it is."
An eyewitness, Dr. Cathy White-Owen, said she saw a disabled tractor-trailer partially in the passing lane and partially off the roadway. In front of the tractor-trailer was a state police car and an emergency medical vehicle.
She noticed another tractor-trailer in the passing lane that tried to go around the disabled vehicle and started sliding. It jackknifed, blocking the right lane. Then the pileup started.
Crews will be working well in to the early morning to clear the wreckage, Pochatko said.
Contributing factors
Pochatko, PennDOT's assistant county manager for Mercer County, said a number of factors contributed to the collision: wet and snowy roads, sudden squalls and drivers who aren't trained to drive in winter conditions.
There were 25 tow trucks on the scene from 10 different companies. By late Sunday afternoon, cars had been pulled to the side of the road and were being taken out in the opposite direction.
Dozens of accident victims came to a secondary triage center that was set up at the Quality Inn in Shenango Township.
Dr. Sergio Segarra, medical director of Sharon Regional Health System's Emergency Care Center, said 11 of the 80 people transported to the triage center were sent to UPMC Farrell and Sharon Regional for treatment.
Most injuries were to legs and arms, and some people complained of chest pains, Dr. Segarra said.
Dr. Segarra was part of the Mercer County Mass Casualty Response Unit that was set up by the Mercer County Emergency Management Agency.
Glenn Miller, EMS coordinator of Sharon Regional, said that every public safety department in the county is represented in the unit. They have annual training and exercises to deal with mass casualties.
Not the first time
This wasn't the first time the unit had assembled to deal with a large wreck on I-80. Miller said that two buses collided on the interstate in Mercer County several years ago resulting in injuries. Area hospitals reported from 25 to 35 people treated for injuries.
The closest hospital to the accident site, United Community Hospital in Grove City, Pa., received "10 to 20" patients from the scene, a nursing supervisor there said. Most were released. Some were sent to Pittsburgh hospitals.
"All of them seemed to be in pretty good condition, pretty stable," she said, noting that 20 to 30 additional nurses were called in to work after the hospital was notified that accident victims were being brought in.
Three patients were brought by ambulance to UPMC Horizon in Farrell, a spokesman said.
Other hospitals prepared
But many area hospitals prepared themselves for patients that never arrived.
"We've been waiting since we've heard about this, but we haven't received anyone," said a nursing supervisor at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown.
Forum Health Northside Medical Center in Youngstown treated one accident victim with minor injuries, a nursing supervisor said.