Massive Car Wreck On I-70 In Bonner Springs

We went by this wreck going the other way. It was scary as hell to see. It's just plain amazing that nobody was killed or even seriously injured. The only way that I can think of to describe it is that it looked like the police car pile-up at the end of The Blues Brothers movie. We went by at about 1:30. I heard on the radio today that I-70 Westbound was closed until 9:00 last night while they removed the cars and debris.

We went to The Legends and had dinner. We took I-435 south to K-10 to get back to Lawrence. There was another wreck/backup in the northbound lanes close to the Johnson/Wyandotte county line that had the traffic backed up in all three lanes for at least two miles. Crappy day to drive in KC. Also heard that there were more than 60 accidents in Topeka on Sunday through this morning.

WIBW Story with Video

That was a wild one. And on an elevated roadway too. Bet there were some shorts needing laundered after that.

There was also another pileup on I-35 yesterday near the 69 highway exit that had 35 shut down for a while. The weather around here was weird yesterday afternoon. One minute it would be cloudy with a few peeks of sun and then snow would move in and you couldn't even see for a bit and then it would clear out again. That is what caused the pileup on I-70 is that people hit that snow and couldn't see. I just know i'm ready for spring, they are saying only a few more inches of snow here in KC and it will be the snowiest winter on record.

Degeneration X wrote:

I just know i'm ready for spring, they are saying only a few more inches of snow here in KC and it will be the snowiest winter on record.

It seems as though that is common from Chicago to Birmingham and from Dallas to Providence.

Damn global warming.

This has been the most bizarre winter in my memory. Record snows in warm places and record warmth in cold places.

Degeneration X wrote:

There was also another pileup on I-35 yesterday near the 69 highway exit that had 35 shut down for a while. The weather around here was weird yesterday afternoon. One minute it would be cloudy with a few peeks of sun and then snow would move in and you couldn't even see for a bit and then it would clear out again. That is what caused the pileup on I-70 is that people hit that snow and couldn't see. I just know i'm ready for spring, they are saying only a few more inches of snow here in KC and it will be the snowiest winter on record.

Was like that in Topeka, too. Sucked.

I watched the wierd snowstorm from my windows. My 1 and a half year old stood at the window and would go OOOOHHHHHHH when it would get heavy and would be whiteout like conditions. We're not far from the i-70 wreck location. It is truly amazing that with the 60+ cars involved in pileups here on sunday that less than 20 people went to the hospital and noone was severely injured. It could have been way worse if ANYONE had gotten out of the cars to check damage before the wreck were truly over.

Very lucky that some semi hauling dangerous cargo didn't plow into the stack of cars too.

probably someone taking a picture with there cell phone of the road conditions to send to someone while driving cause all the wrecks

zeke wrote:

probably someone taking a picture with there cell phone of the road conditions to send to someone while driving cause all the wrecks

It was actually clear-ish, then total white out conditions for about 5 minutes, then back to clear-ish... continuing the cycle for quite a while. I imagine the white out conditions contributed greatly to the wreck. Yeah, yeah, people should drive for the conditions. They should have been on guard after the first round of white out (unless this happened during the first round).

suzyr wrote:

zeke wrote:

probably someone taking a picture with there cell phone of the road conditions to send to someone while driving cause all the wrecks

It was actually clear-ish, then total white out conditions for about 5 minutes, then back to clear-ish... continuing the cycle for quite a while. I imagine the white out conditions contributed greatly to the wreck. Yeah, yeah, people should drive for the conditions. They should have been on guard after the first round of white out (unless this happened during the first round).

People did slow down enough that very few air bags deployed on impact. Problem was that they were on a downgrade and after the first cars were in the road, the others couldn't stop. I heard a guy on the radio who was in the middle of it. He was trapped in his car for five hours. He said he had slowed to about 20-30mph before he saw the cars ahead of him.

I remember being in a thunderstorm deluge in Mississippi where we had to pull clear off the interstate to avoid being hit by imbeciles behind us. It was funny to start up after the downpour subsided to see several of them stuck in the ditch after they hydroplaned. They deserved it since they were fishtailing on the water when they passed us. We just smiled and waved as we drove past them stuck in the mud.

Ratzilla wrote:

I remember being in a thunderstorm deluge in Mississippi where we had to pull clear off the interstate to avoid being hit by imbeciles behind us. It was funny to start up after the downpour subsided to see several of them stuck in the ditch after they hydroplaned. They deserved it since they were fishtailing on the water when they passed us. We just smiled and waved as we drove past them stuck in the mud.

I thought seriously about doing just that when we hit the snow, but the turnpike has concrete walls on either side, making it impossible to get far enough off the highway to avoid becoming a target.