[diggler]

This will make national news tonight:

BREAKING: At least 1 dead in massive I-94 pileup near Michigan City

Indiana State Police are confirming 1 person has died in a horrible pileup on I-94 near the 36 mile marker near Michigan City. Eastbound lanes are shutdown.

MORE: http://www.wsbt.com/

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As bad as it gets.

At least 15 semis and ''too many cars to count'' were involved in a fatal crash on I-94 near Michigan City, Ind., on January 23, 2014, officials said

SLIDESHOW: http://bit.ly/1hPNFa0

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[Southsider2k12]

3 dead so far. Could still be more.

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Chicago man among 3 dead in pileup on I-94 near Michigan City

SUN-TIMES MEDIA and wire reports

Updated: January 24, 2014 2:18AM

A massive highway pileup being blamed on whiteout conditions killed at least three people, including a Chicago man, and injured more than 20 others Thursday on Interstate 94 in Northwest Indiana, authorities said.

Indiana State Police said I-94 eastbound was closed and could remain shuttered on Friday as a result of the crash, involving more than 40 vehicles. Cranes and wreckers were being brought in to help clear the scene, and school buses were being summoned to help warm people who were stuck in the pileup.

The crash happened about 3:30 p.m. Thursday about three miles east of Michigan City.

Indiana State Police confirmed the three deaths and said the toll could rise because cars were trapped under semitrailers and hadn’t been searched. That includes a 66-year-old Chicago man who along with his golden retriever, were killed in the crash, said LaPorte County Coroner John Sullivan.

His name was not being released Thursday night pending notification of his family.

The other two people killed in the crash were a husband and wife from Grand Rapids, Mich., Sullivan said. Their ages were not immediately available Thursday night.

“It’s looking grim. There may be many more fatalities,” Sullivan told WLS-TV. “The clock is working against us.”

Coroners from surrounding counties were asked to go to the scene.

Photos of the scene showed at least a dozen semitrailers jammed together the width of the highway near an overpass. Some passenger vehicles were sandwiched in the wreckage. Indiana State Police said the accident involved about 15 semitrailers and five passenger vehicles and pickup trucks.

Dixie Juchcinski told WMAQ-TV that the accident occurred during a snowstorm.

“When we first came to a stop, it was a complete whiteout,” Juchcinski said. “It was kind of a surprise to us because we could only see one or two cars in front of us.”

National Weather Service meteorologist Evan Bentley said heavy snow was reported in the area at the time of the crash. He said a band of lake effect snow moved in late in the afternoon, dropping 1 to 2 inches of snow an hour and reducing visibility to a quarter-mile or less, with some reports of visibility near zero.

[Ang]

I watched the news in shock and horror after work. I knew about the accident, but stayed clear of the area figuring I'd just catch it on the news. As I watched, they pulled someone alive out of a car that was literally buried among the semi-trailers. Such an amazing thing! It brought tears to my eyes.

I think it was pretty amazing though, that among all that wreckage only four people have died. I know of three at the scene and I heard on the news this morning that a fourth person died at St. Anthony's during the night but they hadn't released the name.

My prayers go out to the families of the deceased, and to the survivors. PTSD is a real thing and can be debilitating sometimes. It can cause accident survivors to have terrifying nightmares, to be petrified to drive again, as well as physical problems. And something this horrific can certainly cause PTSD.

I also want to praise the EMS people from our area as well as the surrounding areas who worked through the night in the frigid temperatures to rescue the people, and clear the highway.

[diggler]

I always thought a 'Mansfield' or an ICC bar is suppose to prevent that kind of thing. Then again, if you go fast enough, then it probably won't help much.

The people riding in cars with sunroofs in the pileup there yesterday, were the lucky ones....as they had an alternate means of escape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTGVR6NKDoo

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[diggler]

So sad, so terribly sad.

At the time of the accident, Jerry Dalrymple, who lived next door to his sister in Beverly, was driving to check on his soon-to-be retirement home in La Porte, Ind., his sister said. The family’s black lab, “Sparky,” was also killed in the crash. “I told him goodbye, have a good time and drive safely — those were my last words to him,” Deanna Dalrymple recalled saying to her brother just before he left for Indiana Thursday.

http://bit.ly/1hS7s8w

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[Southsider2k12]

I watched the news in shock and horror after work. I knew about the accident, but stayed clear of the area figuring I'd just catch it on the news. As I watched, they pulled someone alive out of a car that was literally buried among the semi-trailers. Such an amazing thing! It brought tears to my eyes.

I think it was pretty amazing though, that among all that wreckage only four people have died. I know of three at the scene and I heard on the news this morning that a fourth person died at St. Anthony's during the night but they hadn't released the name.

My prayers go out to the families of the deceased, and to the survivors. PTSD is a real thing and can be debilitating sometimes. It can cause accident survivors to have terrifying nightmares, to be petrified to drive again, as well as physical problems. And something this horrific can certainly cause PTSD.

I also want to praise the EMS people from our area as well as the surrounding areas who worked through the night in the frigid temperatures to rescue the people, and clear the highway.

I hadn't heard about a 4th person yet. So sad.

[Ang]

I think I misunderstood the news this morning. After reading this, it appears the husband of the MI couple died at the hospital, not the scene, so there is only 3 fatalities.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=n...&id=9405660

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All of a sudden, a 70 mph speed zone sign in the dead of winter doesn't look so attractive anymore.

[Ang]

Especially when you add 70mph gusts of wind that blows the snow around!

[taxthedeer]

I drove over the scene on the 400 N. overpass about a half hour after this happened, I didn't realize the accident had happened. It was indescribably horrific.

[diggler]

Just breaks your heart watching something like this:

http://bit.ly/1dBv24c

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[Tim]

When my better half Hiromi got home last night I mentioned this and she already knew about it - and I'm in Kobe, Japan.

What a horrible tragedy.

[Southsider2k12]

Ron Meer
16 minutes ago near Michigan City, IN
Governor’s Gratitude

Michigan City, IN --- At approximately 3:40 p.m. on Friday, January 24, 2014, Indiana Governor Mike Pence contacted Michigan City Mayor Ron Meer to request that the Michigan City Mayor please forward his gratitude and compliments to all of the Michigan City agencies that were involved in the heartbreaking accident yesterday on I-94.

Governor Pence wanted to specifically thank all of the Michigan City agencies that were involved, including, the Michigan City Fire Department, the Michigan City Police Department, the Michigan City Emergency Management Volunteers and the Michigan City Transit Department. The Governor went on to tell Mayor Meer that the Michigan City Transit buses, which were used as warming centers, were a crucial component in this rescue effort.

Governor Pence also told Mayor Meer that he was impressed with the cooperation and work shown by all of the agencies at the local, county and state levels who came together during this tragic event to perform amazing work in extremely brutal weather conditions. The Governor said he believes the remarkable efforts of every man and woman at the accident site, without a doubt, saved lives. Governor Pence also mentioned how thankful he was with the responders who came across the state line in Michigan to help their neighbors to the south. Governor Pence referenced the work done during the “Miracle at Mt. Baldy” and finished his conversation with Mayor Meer by stating that he has a high level of confidence in the emergency responders in LaPorte County.

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A first responder cheeks inside a mangled passenger vehicle at the scene of a massive pileup involving more than 40 vehicles, many of them semitrailers, along Interstate 94 Thursday afternoon, Jan. 23, 2014 near Michigan City, Ind. At least three were killed and more than 20 people were injured. (AP Photo/South Bend Tribune, James Brosher)

At I-94 crash site, drivers 'trapped and twisted'

Rosemary Regina Sobol, Chicago Tribune January 24, 2014

Mick Pawlik was laying tile in his kitchen when his pager went off, and within minutes the volunteer fire chief found himself in a "war zone," staring at a mile of mangled semis and crumpled cars along Interstate 94.

"People are trapped and twisted, and you see the fear in their eyes," said Pawlik, 55, a retired utility worker. "When people are stuck in their cars, they look at you like we're Moses. 'Part the waters and save us.' We can't show no fear or panic."

He and other firefighters from the Coolspring Volunteer Fire Department quickly and quietly went about their jobs, checking the wreckage for signs of life. Three people died in the accident, which occurred Thursday afternoon near Michigan City, Ind., and nearly two dozen were injured.

"We know our limitations and what we've got to do," Pawlik said. "We're like family."

Sometimes, they didn't even realize there were cars pinned under semis until they got close. "There were people in cars you couldn't even see," he said. "It's hard to come up on a car with a person in it. … They don't want you to leave but you've got to go."

Pawlik said he tried to "get human" with the people who were trapped to calm them down. He talked to them, asked their names and sometimes joked.

Early on, Pawlik came across a woman named Judy alone in her car, frightened and freezing. "I said, 'Judy, I'm going to make you my priority. I'm going to get you out of here,' " he recalled.

He brought her blankets to keep her warm in the brutal cold and also took off his head gear, a "max hood," and handed it over to her. "I said, 'Judy, I know this old thing is going to stink because it came off an old fireman here,' and she laughed."

A bigger challenge lay ahead: A man pinned in his crushed SUV. "He was totally encased, surrounded in a semi, and he was just in a little SUV," Pawlik said.

Pawlik said he started talking to the man, Jeff Rennell, and gave him hot pads and blankets. It would take nearly three hours before they could free him, cutting off the SUV's roof and prying him out.

The man wasn't able to see most of what the firefighters were doing, so Pawlik said they tried to explain their every move. "You're going to hear a lot of crunches here, so let us know if you feel any pain and we'll stop instantly," Pawlik said he told Rennell.

The volunteers also tried to get the man's mind off the accident, if only briefly. Pawlik told him, " 'When you get out, I'm going to take you out for a beer.' He laughed and he forgot where he was just for a second."

"We just kept plugging away," said Pawlik. Another firefighter got extrication tools, and Rennell was finally cut out. "I thought he was going to kiss him," Pawlik said, laughing.

Working alongside Pawlik was Rick Bradford, a captain with the volunteer fire department and a retired restaurant owner.

Bradford, 60, said he crawled through the back of the vehicle to reach Rennell. "We removed the top of the car to get better access to him but he was jammed in so tight," Bradford said. "He was pinned in by his feet."

Unbelievably, they said, Rennell seemed to be OK and was "great"' working with his rescuers. "He did not appear to have life-threatening injuries," Bradford said. "The fact that he survived that horrific crash … . Had you seen the condition of his car, I wouldn't have thought he'd have survived. And I have 28 years."

Luckily, the force of the collision had pushed Rennell's car up until it "was almost sitting on top of the engine of a semi tractor." Still, it was so badly crushed, Bradford couldn't make out the make or model. "I don't know what it started out as."

"I don't know if words can describe it," he continued. "The pictures that people were taking from the bridge give you an idea of what it's like, but when you get down there, you couldn't see that there were cars between those semis."

Rennell was taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill.

Pawlik credited the quick work of firefighters and paramedics for saving lives. "We weren't glory hounds or nothing," the chief said. "For what it was, it was excellent. We're lucky there weren't 20 dead. … It was such a devastating scene. It'll live with us forever."

Three killed in crash identified

Indiana authorities identified the victims as Thomas Wolma, 67, and his wife, Marilyn, 65, of Grand Rapids, Mich., who were returning home after caring for a relative in Wisconsin, and Jerry Dalrymple, 65, of Chicago, who was killed along with his dog.

[Southsider2k12]

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte...c5fced4d98.html

[diggler]

With February weather promising more of the same, we'll see even more Zombie Apocalypse scenes like these:

http://rt.com/usa/atlanta-snow-gridlock-storm-384/

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