35 injured in 69-vehicle chain reaction car accident in Virginia

In a 63-vehicle, chain-reaction crash on fogy and icy stretch of a Virginia highway on December 22 has left 35 people injured. The police officials have confirmed that the wounded have been transferred to the hospital and 11 are in serious condition. All the westbound lanes of Interstate 64 in York County, Virginia which is about 80 kilometres southeast of Richmond remained closed on Sunday afternoon. The car crashes reportedly began shortly after 8 am (local time). Even though the cause of the crash is unidentified, it took several hours for the crew to clear the roadway and reopen all lanes of traffic. 

Photos of the incident show a tangled a mass of metal, with car hoods crumpled, windows smashed and a red truck on top of them. Around the time of the crash, a passenger Ian Levy told an international media that he started slowing down his truck and turned on its hazardous lights because of thick fog but, the next thing he noticed was piled-up cars.

Levy said, “Next thing I know I see cars just start piling up on top of each other”.

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Two persons are critical

Ian Levy and her wife, Alena had taken different vehicles to reach Williamsburg for work, but after the incident, Ian received a call from her wife who had suffered a minor injury in the car wreck and Alena called 'so scary'.  Virginia State Police Sgt. Michelle Anaya said in the 69-vehicle crash, 51 people were treated or transported to hospitals noting that the figures kept constantly changing. Even though 11 passengers are currently in serious conditions, two are listed as critical. An investigation has been launched into the cause of the crash. 

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A separate accident took place where eight cars were involved in a crash on I-64 in the opposite direction after the larger pileup. However, it was not immediately clear about the fatalities in the crash. In another bizarre car accident, three vehicles appeared to be floating in mid-air after all of them got tangled up in a wire left by a sweeper on the road. A street sweeper accidentally left the wire on the road and when a car pulled in at the traffic signal it was tangled and was pulled up by the force of other cars wrapped up in the wire.

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(With AP inputs)