200-vehicle pileup kills 2, injures nearly 70 amid whiteout conditions in Montreal

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200-vehicle pileup kills 2, injures nearly 70 amid whiteout conditions in MontrealA pileup involving roughly 200 vehicles killed two people and injured nearly 70 on Autoroute 15 in La Prairie, Québec, Canada on Wednesday.Sudden whiteout conditions with blowing snow severely limited visibility in the area likely caused the major chain reaction, Quebec's Transport Minister François Bonnardel said at a news conference."The pileup was likely the result of a snow squall that moved through between 7 and 9 am this morning. Similar to a squall line in the summertime, winds can pick up quite dramatically and snow can fall heavily in a short period of time," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rossio said. According to Rossio, this can lead to white-out conditions that can bring severely reduced visibility, in some cases to a quarter of a mile or less."Vehicles that entered the squall likely slowed down and drivers outside the squall potentially did not see the quickly slowing traffic, which likely led to the pileup. It was also occurring during rush hour, which may have also had an influence." Rossio said.Images and videos of the crash shared on social media show a school minibus, a tanker truck with a flammable materials sign as well as other mangled cars involved in the deadly crash.> Emergency responders are working to get people out of their cars after a multi-vehicle pileup in La Prairie, Que. Provincial police say as many as 60 people have been injured. > > More: https://t.co/o0JfnfbAKi pic.twitter.com/x065boXuU8> > -- CBC Montreal (@CBCMontreal) February 19, 2020CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPEmergency personnel worked to get people out of their cars as two people were trapped and died as a result.No students were involved in the accident, officials reported.Multiple vehicles looked as if they were only tangled metal, while roughly 75 were able to get towed and about 50 lightly damaged vehicles were able to drive away from the scene, said Sgt Marie-Michelle Moore with the province's police force and highway patrol authority, citing The Guardian.The highway is likely to remain closed until Thursday, according to The Guardian.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.


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