MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Maryland — A Monday morning crash involving more than 20 vehicles on Interstate 270 in Montgomery County left multiple people seriously hurt. The 20-vehicle pileup was declared a mass casualty incident, according to officials.
Officials report that the accident took place near Washington, D.C. The Montgomery County Fire Department says medical crews evaluated more than two dozen people and had four taken to the hospital, including two with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Fire officials say the crash happened on I-270 in Middlebrook Road and Montgomery Village Avenue in Germantown after a tractor-trailer carrying stones and gravel crashed, losing its load. Police say the white tractor-trailer then left the scene of the crash and authorities are currently searching for it.
20-Vehicle Pileup Was Unavoidable
Officials say other cars could not avoid the tractor-trailer, leading to the crash. Police say they were called to the crash at around 5:20 a.m. When they arrived at the scene, they found a nightmare scene. It’s amazing that so few people walked away from this pileup with serious injuries. After all, all of those vehicles crashing into one another could have been a major tragedy. As it stands, the pileup is mostly just an inconvenience for commuters.
I-270 was closed going south but all lanes have now reopened. However, that doesn’t mean that delays won’t continue in the area. For the time being, driving in Montgomery County is going to be very challenging. It’ll try your patience quite a lot, so only make the trip if you absolutely have to and you’re calm first.
Maryland State Police say they are investigating the crash with help from Montgomery County Police, the Maryland State Highway Administration and others. They will try their best to figure out everything that happened to cause so many vehicles to crash together. Hopefully they’ll figure out what caused this soon so we can all prevent it from happening again.
