Canadian police have reported that two people lost their lives due to a massive pileup involving around 200 cars on a busy highway near Montreal.
It is confirmed by the Canadian authorities that both of the unfortunate travelers were on the same vehicle that hit a tanker truck during the accident.
The pileup happened in La Prairie, Quebec. The dead have not yet been identified.
Spokesperson of the Sûreté du Québec Stéphane Tremblay said that the passengers were stuck in their car for hours before rescue services could reach the site and help them.
When pulled out of the wreckage, both were found dead.
Tremblay explained: “We know that these people were involved in a collision with a tank truck, which made the rescue operation more difficult for first responders.”
The pileup that involved around 200 cars is thought to have been initiated by a sudden whiteout that happened due to a blizzard and caught the unsuspecting drivers off guard.
The crash, that happened on Highway 15 running parallel to the St. Lawrence River, stretched on a length of one kilometer of the road. It started at approximately 12:30 pm.
There was no report of any causalities in the start but the firefighting crew then confirmed that two people lost their lives because of being stuck in their cars following the unfortunate event.
The two people died due to their injuries as the rescue teams couldn’t reach them due to diesel spillage on the site of the accident which needed to be stabilized before carrying on rescue operations.
CETAM ambulance service has confirmed that nearly 100 people were injured and needed to be taken to a hospital, while nine of them sustained serious injuries.
Fifty of the vehicles involved in the crash had only minor damage and drove away from the site but another 75 had to be towed to clear the highway.
François Bonnardel, the Transport Minister of Quebec, explained in a press conference that the pileup happened in an area where strong winds and blizzards are common due to the nearby river.
“People were driving, there were strong winds … and, suddenly, you couldn’t see anything,’’ said Bonnarde. “And then, well, the pileup started.’’
An eyewitness of the crash, Spencer Jacob, who was driving down the highway when the pileup started, told CTV News: “There was just pure white snow like a whiteout getting blown onto the roads. We couldn’t see anything.”
“That’s when we were like ‘this is bad,’ and we need to get out of the car,” he added.
“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.”
Replaced!