At least 50 vehicles were involved in an accident on Chicago’s Kennedy Expressway on Wednesday morning, said local officials.
The Chicago Fire Department said that approximately 54 vehicles are involved in the pileup, reported CBS Chicago.
At least 14 people were taken to local hospitals, and 32 other people “have been evaluated and will NOT be transported,” according to the Chicago Fire Department.
It noted that slick, “low traction conditions” are still occurring on roadways in the area. In a previous post, the agency said that low traction on the expressway triggered “multiple collisions.”
The crash came amid poor driving conditions caused by a spring snowstorm. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), snow has been “falling rather heavily at times” and “will end from the west this morning.”
“Accumulating snow should end over most of the Chicago metro area by 9 am, but continuing until 10 or 11 am across the far southern suburbs and northwest Indiana. While snowfall totals will not be particularly heavy, the snow is creating very hazardous travel conditions,” the agency said.
A winter weather advisory was also issued in Chicago. Meanwhile, a fraction of an inch of snow has fallen in the city, according to the local NWS website.
The Illinois Department of Transportation told the CBS station that areas on the expressway might be closed for two hours.
“Overnight conditions deteriorated and we got some snow and icy conditions on the expressway, vehicles driving at high rates of speed caused the accident,” explained John Giordano of the Chicago Fire Department, according to a local ABC station. “We are not sure the vehicles that caused it but it did cause an effect where vehicles couldn’t stop behind them because of the high speeds that they were traveling and thus the amount of vehicles we have at this time.”
Chicago, like the rest of Illinois, is currently under a stay-at-home order in a bid to curb the spread of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, which cause COVID-19.
