‘We Couldn’t See Anything’: Deadly 200-Vehicle Pileup Near Montreal, Canada, Preceded by Whiteout – The Weather Channel

Witnesses at the front of a huge pileup near Montreal that killed two people on Wednesday describe a terrifying scene with vehicles slamming into each other as blowing snow made it impossible to see.

"There was just pure white snow like a whiteout getting blown onto the roads. We couldn't see anything," Spencer Jacob told CTV News.

Jacob and four friends had been visiting Montreal and were driving home to upstate New York when the whiteout began. They pulled over but another vehicle clipped their car. The men called police and soon after an ambulance arrived.

"Another car came down and just flew into the back of the ambulance. That blocked up two lanes and then another 18-wheeler came and just slammed into that car," Jacob said. "That's when we were like 'this is bad,' and we need to get out of the car. Our doors were pressed against the snow so we had to get out of the windows and run up onto the snowbank and we were just watching."

(MORE: Here's Why Snow Squalls Are Dangerous)

By the time everyone got stopped, the pileup had ensnared nearly 200 vehicles on Highway 15 in La Prairie, Quebec, Canada. Hours after the pileup, which happened about 12:30 p.m. local time, Quebec police confirmed the two deaths, according to the Montreal Gazette.

Reports of the number of injured people varied, with the Gazette saying at least 40 people were hurt and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporting at least 60 with 20 of those being seriously injured.

Emergency personnel gather at the scene following a multi-vehicle crash on the south shore of Montreal in La Prairie, Quebec, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020.

The two who died were in the same vehicle, police said. Emergency personnel worked until 6 p.m. to free the bodies from the wreckage.

"We know that these people were involved in a collision with a tank truck, which made the rescue operation more difficult for first responders," said Stphane Tremblay, spokesperson for the Sret du Qubec.

Firefighters had to extricate victims from at least nine vehicles. Shuttle buses took about 150 people to a nearby community center. There, health officials continued to evaluate them and sent some to the hospital.

"As I was driving along going about (55 to 60 mph), all I saw was red lights, brake lights, cars just hitting each other, trying to swerve out of the way," a driver who identified himself as Kyle told CTV News. "I tried to do the same myself, and I got hit by another bus, smacked into the retaining wall."

Emergency personnel gather at the scene after a multi-vehicle crash on the south shore of Montreal in La Prairie, Quebec, Wednesday, February 19, 2020.

The incident closed a six-mile stretch of Highway 15 in both directions. The northbound lanes were reopened as of midnight Wednesday, but the southbound lanes remain closed, CTV News reported.

The part of the highway where the pileup happened is vulnerable to southwesterly winds coming off the St. Lawrence River, CTV News reported. Wind can toss snow into the air on the exposed patch of road, obscuring visibility. A chain-link fence runs along the highway to help block the blowing snow.

Quebec's Transport Minister Franois Bonnardel confirmed there were whiteout conditions at the time of the crash, as snow and high winds reduced visibility to zero.

Snow-clearing vehicles had passed through the area twice in the hour before the collisions took place, Bonnardel said at an afternoon news conference.

The conditions were nice, but the high winds caused the zero-visibility situation, he said.

Jacob, the American tourist, and his friends tried to warn approaching vehicles of the crash.

"They couldn't see," he said.

"I turned my back to it," Jacob said. "I just couldn't watch it or hear it any more because it's just so horrific that people don't know where they're going and they just crash into a car."

About 50 of the 200 vehicles involved were able to drive away on their own, a police spokesperson told CTV News. Another 75 have to be towed, the spokesperson added. A dozen large trucks and a school bus, whose passengers were uninjured, were also among the vehicles involved.

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'We Couldn't See Anything': Deadly 200-Vehicle Pileup Near Montreal, Canada, Preceded by Whiteout - The Weather Channel