Around fifty cars collided in a massive pileup accident on Interstate 75 in Ohio this morning. Snow and slick road conditions are believed to have caused the accident, which sent 18 people to the hospital but did not cause any fatalities.
"It was complete ice all over the highway," Luke Stevens, who was hit in the pileup, told the Dayton Daily News. "Cars were coming straight toward us at 60 miles per hour...We ended up getting hit head-on by a truck."
It had been snowing lightly that morning, but no one predicted the sudden white-out that triggered the accident.
Jackie Jones, another victim of the crash, told the Dayton Daily News: "All I could see were cars starting to swirl in front of me. As soon as I tapped my brakes my car started to kind of get out of control."
Officials briefly shut down southbound traffic on I-75, but the highway was reopened later today.
This storm comes during an unusually snowy season in the Midwest and the Northeast. Last winter, these regions as a whole saw lighter-than-average snowfall, but this year, meteorologists "now expect more weak, fast-moving snowstorms, and cold for the Midwest than previously forecast," according to Accuweather.com.
AccuWeather meteorologists also predict heavier-than-average snowfall for northeastern cities, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
"We'll have to watch for exploding, rapid development of storms at the last minute," warns AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok.
Meaning drivers should be extra careful on the roads this winter; according to a study conducted by Noblis, a nonprofit research corporation, nearly a quarter of all car crashes in the U.S. are weather-related.