CARMEL, Maine (AP) — About a dozen people were injured in a 30-car pileup during the Tuesday morning commute on a highway in Maine, state troopers said.
There were no fatalities, but ambulances and a medical helicopter were dispatched to the crash site on Interstate 95 near Bangor, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
State police reported that 10 people were transported by ambulances, and at least three others sought treatment at hospitals, McCausland said.
Initial reports were that some motorists were blinded by the morning sun, contributing to the chain-reaction pileup as a stream of motorists headed toward Bangor, he said. A state police cruiser was caught up in the mess.
Tammy Waltman said the bright sunlight prevented her from seeing. But she could hear cars sliding and banging into each other.
“Cars around me and behind me were going every which way,” she told the Bangor Daily News.
The weather didn’t appear to be a factor in the crash, which was reported at about 7:45 a.m. There had been some light snow that ended at midnight, hours before the pileup, the National Weather Service said.
It was initially reported that up to 60 vehicles were involved, but the figure was revised downward, McCausland said. The northbound lanes were closed for more than three hours before reopening.
Tuesday’s mass collision is not the first on the interstate in Maine. More than 30 people were injured in a pileup that involved 102 vehicles over a 4-miles (6-kilometer) stretch of I-95 during light snow in February 2015.
