By Aaron Besecker
The Buffalo News, N.Y.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A chain-reaction crash involving dozens of vehicles on a snow-slicked roadway closed the northbound Niagara Thruway at the North Grand Island Bridge shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday.
Niagara County Fire Wire said that up to 50 vehicles were involved, and Niagara Falls police later referred to the number in the dozens. State Police said seven people were treated for injuries not considered life-threatening in Mount St. Mary’s Hospital, Lewiston.
One driver involved in the crash said a woman who got out of her car was hit by another vehicle.
Rani Salemi of Lewiston, an eyewitness to the crash who was headed south to her store in the Walden Galleria at the time, described the scene as “horrific.”
She said that initially, three to four cars skidded into one another on the slippery roadway at the beginning of the downslope section of the northbound span.
However, she said, motorists accelerating toward the top of the span “had no clue” that there was a crash and were unable to slow down in time on the treacherous highway, and they skidded into the pileup, which continued to grow.
Salemi estimated that 20 to 30 vehicles were involved in the crash, including a bus and a tractor-trailer. The number of vehicles in the crash continued to grow in the immediate aftermath.
Candace Works of Buffalo was en route to meet family at a Thanksgiving dinner in Niagara Falls when she became part of the pileup.
“I came over the bridge and cars are starting to hit against the rail, both sides,” Works said. “There was a car down at the end of the bridge, it was slanted. The car in front of me, I was able to stop, but the car behind me wasn’t. He slammed into me which made me slam into her.” Her Chevrolet Traverse was near the bottom of the northbound bridge when it finally came to rest.
Works, who said she called 911 at 6:04 p.m., said the hood of one vehicle was “crumpled like an accordion.”
“Never in my life have I seen anything like this before,” Works said. “It had to be at least 20, 25 cars behind me, and they were coming down -- ‘bam, boom,’ hitting the rail. One truck’s driver-side door flew open
Two Niagara University students returning to campus said their car was the third involved in the chain-reaction crash.
The first two cars -- about 40 or 50 feet in front of them -- collided after swerving because of the slick roadway. Those cars had just passed the Buffalo Avenue exit and were still on the Interstate 190 going north, the students said.
“We were the third car in the accident,” said Aundrea Rogers, a Niagara U sophomore.
“The two cars in front of us were the ones who, they started slipping on the ice and then they bumped each other. We slipped and we hit the guardrail.”
Rogers, who was in the car with Niagara U junior Leah Mason, said their car was facing the wrong way when it came to a stop.
The pair, who said they were stuck in their car at the crash site for two hours, had been driving back to Lewiston from Thanksgiving dinner in Rochester with two others -- Rogers’ sister, Stephanie, and Rachel Mason, a freshman at Monroe Community College, who were just minutes ahead in another vehicle.
Aundrea Rogers called Stephanie right after the crash happened because she wanted to warn her of the pileup because she thought her sister’s car was behind them.
“I was on the phone with her as three different cars hit her,” Stephanie Rogers said.
They said conditions on the road changed quickly -- one minute there was no snow, then the snow started falling and then they encountered the slippery bridge.
“We kind of count ourselves as kind of a little bit lucky that we stopped then,” Aundrea Rogers said, “because there was a tractor-trailer right in front of us.”
Meanwhile, Mike Rudney of Grand Island was heading to Walmart in Niagara Falls to buy iPads. Near the top of the bridge, he said, he could see flashing lights and started slowing down.
After he hit the brakes, he said, he “slid the whole way down the bridge.” Vehicles in front of him were already blocking the lanes. He swerved to avoid some vehicles, but eventually clipped two vehicles before he hit the guardrail.
“It was a sheet of ice,” Rudney said. “I mean I couldn’t tell before that, until you got onto the other side of the bridge. Once you tried to brake a little bit, it just was a sheet of ice.”
Rudney said he saw about five stretchers being used to deal with the injured. State Police, ambulances and firefighters were dispatched to the scene. Some people had to be freed from their vehicles, authorities said.
Another motorist involved in the accident said the down slope of the bridge was “like a sheet of ice” and that braking was futile, with vehicles bouncing off each other and off the guardrail.
At the time, snow bands were setting up over northern Erie and Niagara counties, with as much as 3 to 4 inches forecast for overnight.
State Police said that all northbound lanes were blocked and motorists were being advised to face long delays or consider other routes. Normal traffic flow in the northbound lanes resumed at about 10:15 p.m., police added.
The backup in the northbound lanes was estimated at about a mile. A sea of vehicles with flashing lights was visible looking south at the span from the Buffalo Avenue-Robert Moses Parkway exit. Many of the vehicles were towed to a nearby parking lot, witnesses said.
Copyright 2014 The Buffalo News