Detroit pileup leaves 3 dead -- including kids -- and dozens hurt

At least three people were killed – two of them children – and several others were injured after a pileup Thursday that spanned a mile and a half of Interstate 75 in Detroit, authorities said.

“It was probably eight to 10 separate crashes involved in the one crash,� said Lt. Michael Shaw, a Michigan State Police spokesman. “There were probably 300 vehicles that were either trapped in crashes or pulled off or jackknifed.�

Witnesses told police the driving conditions “went from good visibility to zero visibility� in seconds, Shaw said.

A witness told the Detroit Free Press he saw a semi-truck rotate in front of him and then a stream of cars plow into one another. “There was a whiteout,� he said.

The accident, which compounded as each new group of cars slammed into the group stopped ahead of them, involved several semi-trucks and happened along a stretch of interstate that spans the Rouge River, Shaw said.

Images from the scene show the damage and devastation caused by the pileup. Amid the banged-up cars, tire shreds and chunks of snow lining the interstate, two people hugged. Down the way, a firefighter clutched a small dog as his colleague pried the dog’s owner from her vehicle.

By mid-afternoon, 60% of the cars had been cleared away and all of the injured victims had been taken to hospitals, Shaw said.

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