text: BENSALEM, Pa. (CBS) — Several multi-vehicles crashes, involving as many as 100 cars and dozens of tractor-trailers stretched over several miles of icy highway, shut down the Pennsylvania Turnpike for most of the day today between Willow Grove and Bensalem, Pa. 
   
   One crash area involved approximately 75 cars and several tractor-trailers in the eastbound lanes of the highway. The westbound lanes were closed to allow access by emergency vehicles. 
   
   According to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, 30 people were injured and transported to local hospitals. Doylestown Hospital confirmed it was treating one victim who was in stable condition, while Abington was reportedly treating 16 people. St. Mary’s Medical Center, in Langhorne, was treating seven and Temple University Hospital was treating one. CBS 3 is told five of the injuries are classified as serious, but none are considered life-threatening. 
   
   Dr. John Kelly, chief of staff at Abington, says the good news is none of the injuries are serious. 
   
   “The word that we have is that we may have seen the most severely injured at this point in time, which we’re pleased to say did not include any life-threatening injuries that we are aware of.” 
   
   Kelly explained what kind of injuries they were seeing, “In a blunt trauma situation, you’re going to have a lot of soft tissue and bone type injuries. I’m unaware of any fractures to date. We did have one patient who had a closed- head injury but appears to be recovering well from that.” 
   
   The incident began about 8:30am in the eastbound lanes between Willow Grove and the Route 1 exits in Bensalem, Pa. 
   
   Another crash happened closer to the Route 1 exit. That accident area involved approximately 30 cars and included a jackknifed tractor-trailer. 
   
   Chopper 3 was over the scene where it appeared at least four cars were stuck under the jackknifed tractor-trailer. 
   
   “We believe that it looks like at this point that the initial incident involved several tractor-trailer trucks. There have been reports of three to four. State police are working through sorting all that out right now,” Carl DeFebo of the Pa. Turnpike Commission said. 
   
   
   
   “Scared to death, just thinking that it wasn’t going to stop,” remembered Kate Garwood. “You kinda think you’re going to continue to get hit.” 
   
   “I was able to get off to the shoulder,” said Terry Foley, who drives the route to work every day. “I didn’t hit the car in front of me. I said, ‘I survived,’ and then somebody comes flying in the back of me.” 
   
   CBS 3 traffic reporter Bob Kelly called this “the worst accident I have seen in the 20 years I have been doing this.” 
   
   The Pa. Turnpike Commission reported around 3:30 p.m. that the tractor-trailer blocking all eastbound lanes was moved to allow trapped backlog to get past the scene in the left lane to continue eastbound on I-276. Disabled commercial vehicles remained, but all passenger vehicles in the backlog had been removed. 
   
   Other crews were removing small portions of the concrete median, to allow drivers trapped on the eastbound turnpike to U-turn onto the westbound lanes (which were also shut down to all but emergency vehicles) and get off the turnpike. 
   
   The turnpike was reopened to traffic just before 4pm — about 7½ hours after the first crash occurred. 
   
   Investigators indicate icy conditions and sun glare are being blamed as likely culprits in causing the pileup. 
   
   One driver said that road spray on windshields plus the sun low in the sky may have hindered visibility as drivers found themselves suddenly upon a stopped vehicle ahead with insufficient room to stop on the slick pavement. 
   
   Terry Foley seemed to agree. 
   
   “It’s all ice,” Foley said. 
   
   A total of 75 cars and trucks, including six tractor trailers, were taken to Rob Liepziger’s tow yard in Bristol, Bucks County alone. Many of them have front-end damage, back-end damage and a lot of the vehicles have been totaled. 
   
   Rob’s been in the towing business for more than 30 years. 
   
   “I haven’t seen anything like this in forever that I’ve been out here,” Liepziger said. 
   
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   It was an all-day mess on the Pennsylvania Turnpike with the road shut down for miles after two major pileups and several other wrecks in between. 
   
   The crashes left dozens of drivers stranded in the cold. Up to 50 cars were involved in those pileups. 
   
   Here's what we know: 
   
   The crashes on Interstate 276 were first reported just after 8 a.m. right in the middle of the morning rush, closing the turnpike between Willow Grove and the Philadelphia Interchanges in Bensalem; 
   
   A total of 27 people were taken to hospitals, at least four of them with serious injuries; 
   
   Drivers say the roadway was icy and incredibly slick. 
   
   From the air, the long scene looked like an auto junkyard with dozens and dozens of cars and trucks scattered every which way. 
   
   Drivers caught in the middle of the wreckage told us traffic had been moving smoothly at 50 to 55 mph until suddenly, "All we saw was brake lights. Everybody locked up their wheels, and next thing you know the sun glare, the spray from the road, everything hit us all at once," said Bill Warrin, of Broomall, Pa. 
   
   "It was like a perfect storm, and then boom," he added. 
   
   At the front of dozens of separate wrecks were two 18-wheelers, a box truck and several passenger cars. 
   
   This stretch of the turnpike is three tight lanes, a wall of snow on one side, a concrete median Jersey barrier on the other. 
   
   When cars ahead began to crash, there was no way to avoid impact. 
   
   From the ground it was clear there was plenty of hard, packed ice on the road surface, a reminder of our massive snowstorm that lasted Wednesday night into Friday morning. 
   
   But drivers told us conditions were deceiving. 
   
   "It was much icier once you got out of the car than you expected it to be," said Frank Atkinson, of Furlong, Pa. "It seemed like it was slushy maybe, but it didn't seem like it was icy." 
   
   The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission had lifted its storm-related speed limit and ban on some commercial vehicles just two hours before the crash. 
   
   But a spokesman said that decision does not let drivers off the hook. 
   
   "It boils down to responsibility of motorists," turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said. "That's our job when we're driving on the roads to monitor the conditions and to be sure that we are adjusting our speeds that are appropriate to whatever the driving conditions are." 
   
   By early afternoon, a parade of flat-bed tow trucks was removing vehicles caught in the mess. 
   
   The extent of the damage was a reminder that the injury toll could have been much higher, FOX 29's Bruce Gordon reported. 
   
   In the second video clip above, FOX 29's Thalia Perez reports that all but one of the injured persons taken to Abington Memorial Hospital had been treated and released by Friday night. You'll also hear from some of the motorists who were injured.
target: – More than 100 cars and dozens of tractor trailers have been caught up in a chain of accidents stretching over several miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bensalem this morning, backing up traffic for several more miles behind that. The first accident came at about 7:45am on the westbound side, causing a rubbernecking delay on the eastbound side—where the subsequent crashes occurred beginning at 8am, Fox 29 Philadelphia reports. Icy conditions are believed to be responsible—though residents say that stretch of road is so notoriously treacherous that accidents sometimes occur there in good weather. One crash site involves roughly 75 cars and several tractor trailers, CBS 3 Philadelphia reports. Another 30 cars were involved in another big wreck, in which a tractor trailer jackknifed, reportedly landing on top of at least four cars. Emergency crews are now using the westbound side to transport out the wounded. At least five people have been hospitalized so far. This is "the worst accident I have seen in the 20 years I have been doing this," CBS' traffic reporter said.