CLINTONVILLE, Pa., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Two multi-vehicle pileups in the midst of a Pennsylvania snowstorm left at least two people dead and tied up traffic for hours on two interstates, police said.
NBC News reported the Venango County Police Department said one pileup about 3 p.m. involved more than 20 vehicles and tractor-trailer rigs on westbound Interstate 80 between Clintonville and Emlenton. NBC said authorities reported three deaths and six injuries, while the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported two dead.
The newspaper said the crash took place during whiteout conditions.
A second pileup about noon on Interstate 79 in Mercer County involved 40-50 vehicles and a spokeswoman at a hospital in Slippery Rock said there were about 20 people injured, NBC said. KDKA-TV, Pittsburgh, reported about 32 cars and trucks were involved.
Traffic was snarled on both highways for hours, authorities said.
"I was going 30 miles per hour, if that, and you just can't stop," Tom Marchand, who was trying to make his way from his home in Rochester, N.Y. to Florida, told KDKA-TV about his experience in the I-79 crash. "It was a terrible whiteout condition that came up right away, and there's nothing anybody could do."
