If you thought the smog-induced pileup on Indian highways was scary, think again. This?multi-vehicle pileup on Iowa Interstate Highway is nothing short of insanity.?According to local reports, the?incident occurred on Monday morning, and up to 50 vehicles were involved.?
?According to Iowa State Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Alex Dinkla, one person was seriously injured in the wreck.?
The crash involved at least 50 vehicles and led to a major highway being shut down between Altoona and Des Moines, reports WCVB.
According to AccuWeather, a massive snowstorm in the area created treacherous driving conditions in the state, and people on the road suffered due to zero visibility.?Heavy snow, coupled with gusts of wind, made everything hazy and it became impossible for commuters on road to navigate to their destinations. The weather condition called a 'Snow squall' wreaks havoc almost every year,?
"Total snow amounts in Des Moines were generally less than an inch, but the combination of a slick coating of snow, significantly reduced visibility, and wind gusts near 40 mph likely produced very dangerous driving conditions," said AccuWeather meteorologist, Randy Adkins.
Visibility dropped to a 1/4 of a mile, and wind gusts of up to 30 miles per hour blew the snow around, according to weather.com meteorologist, Chris Dolce."This was a pretty classic example of a snow squall visibility drop," said Dolce. "Visibility was 10 miles before the crash, only 1/4 of a mile during the crash, and is now back up to 8 miles after the crash."
?Iowa State Patrol spokesman Sargent Alex Dinkla said to the Des Moines Register that one person was injured after the wreck in the westbound lanes of I-80. No fatalities were reported in the pileup, but police are still accounting for all vehicles involved.
A snow squall is a narrow burst of heavy snow that sometimes comes with gusty wind.?It can significantly lower visibility and causes a localized whiteout, kind of like a mini-blizzard. Many of the large highway pile-ups in winter happen due to snow squalls.
Back home, smog causes similar chaos leading to massive vehicle pile-up on roads. In January this year, several people were injured in a pile-up of 25 vehicles, due to dense fog on the Kanjhawala-Bawana road of outer Delhi.?
Police said they were informed in the wee hours about an accident on the Kanjhawala-Bawana road near Nangal Thakuran village.?
The incident took place when a car caught fire and stopped in the middle of the road, he said.The occupants of the car safely abandoned the vehicle. But due to fog, other vehicles pilled up after another car hit the abandoned four-wheeler.?