Icy rain pelted parts of the Northeast on Sunday, triggering dangerous conditions that led to at least five deaths in the region as well as a 60-vehicle pileup in Pennsylvania.
At least one person was killed and 30 other people were injured in the pile-up on Interstate 76 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, state police said. Four more people died in crashes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut because of extremely slick roads. Another 27-vehicle pileup on the Walt Whitman Bridge shut down a major route between New Jersey and Philadelphia.
"I'm pushing my brakes, and my car just started slipping into the cars," Victor Moye, a driver caught in the Montgomery County pile-up, told NBC Philadelphia. "As I hit the car, a car comes behind me and hits me. I'm swinging around four, five times as other cars are hitting that car and hitting me, as well."
Several bridges were shuttered as crews worked to salt the slippery arteries, the Delaware River Port Authority said.
At one point, freezing rain advisories covered more than 32 million people Sunday, and The Weather Channel said slick roads would remain a big concern Monday morning. Scattered light snow overnight could add to the problem from southwest New York and western Pennsylvania to the mountains of West Virginia.
"Stay home," New Jersey State Police warned on Twitter, noting in a separate tweet that 428 accidents had been reported.
Ice also hampered travel in Connecticut, where several main roads were closed and an 88-year-old woman was killed in a crash in New Haven, according to police. A woman died in Oakfield Township, Michigan, after she lost control of her car when she tried to pass another driver, authorities said.
Icy conditions in New York City, as well as in areas north and west, didn't improve until it got warmer in the afternoon, according to NBC New York. But melting ice and ongoing rain prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flood warning in six New York counties, within and surrounding New York City.
Meanwhile, ice and heavy fog set off a pile-up involving 70 cars and 17 semi-trailers on Saturday night, according to Oregon State Police. At least 12 people were injured in the crash, police said in a statement. But the driver of a pickup truck, whose vehicle was crushed between two semi-trailers, escaped with minor head wounds, according to NBC affiliate KTVB of Boise, Idaho.