Massive Motor Vehicle Accident, Professionals Respond
UPDATE: Democrat and Chronicle
The scale of Sunday’s chain-reaction pileup on Interstate 390 is best described by the numbers:
Thirty-six tangled vehicles.
Twenty-five people injured, including one teenager who later died.
Wind gusts up to 37 mph and blowing snow made seeing past the hood virtually impossible. [snip]
Buses that were headed to the Rochester Institute of Technology to pick up hockey teams were commandeered by the Gates Fire Department and used to keep people warm while the temperature slid to 18 degrees. Firefighters had requested buses as part of the rescue response, West said, but those buses “were in the right place at the right time.”
R News
Emergency crews had to cut four people out of the wreckage. The hardest part was deciding who to treat first.
“They might walk and see a person with a broken arm and say, ‘I’m sorry, you’re going to have to wait,’ as to someone with severe trauma, so that’s the hardest part,” said James Harrington, Gates Fire Chief.
Police say what caused this accident was blowing snow. This part of 390 is located just a few hundred yards from the airport runway. There are no trees to block the wind, causing white-out conditions in a matter of seconds.
A Monroe County spokesperson told R News that the county is not liable for the blowing snow or any damage it may have caused. The county says it is the responsibility of the state DOT to determine whether snow fences are necessary.
At about 12:38 p.m. EST today, the Monroe County 911 Center received a cellphone call reporting a 20 car pileup on I390. In the next few moments, a dozen more calls flooded in. Gates Volunteer Fire and Volunteer Ambulance were dispatched.
Just six minutes later a State Police officer on scene requested “as many EMS rigs as possible”. As late as 12:50 a caller reported that collisions were still occurring.
RNews
White-out conditions are being blamed for a deadly chain reaction crash on Route 390 Sunday. The crash killed a teenage girl.
Le Ngo, 17, of Rochester, died from her injuries following the 36-car pile-up that occurred around 12:40 p.m. in the southbound lane of I-390 near the Greater Rochester International Airport.
Twenty-four others were taken to area hospitals. Lyubov Klepanchuk, 18, was critically injured. The others suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Motorists say a stopped car was hidden by blustery snow coming off the open fields at the airport. Witnesses say the collisions just kept coming.
“As we’re driving going about 40, 45, there was just a white car just stopped, just in the lane and then out of nowhere we just smashed. And then as soon as we smashed, cars just kept hitting us and it was just never-ending it seemed… It was the craziest experience of my life,” said Erik Ramos, witness.
Strong Hospital reports five people are in guarded condition and another four are in satisfactory condition. Unity Hospital says 12 victims were brought in; six have since been treated and released.
Gates responded, declared a Mass Casualty Incident, and additional resources were requested. The professionals in Monroe County and Rochester City Fire and EMS responded. Chili, Churchville, Greece, Henrietta were among the initial responders from the local region. Rochester City Fire and Airport Rescue responded with extrication tools and manpower. The commercial agencies, Rural Metro and Monroe Ambulance sent ambulances and personnel.
It’s flu season. The local hospitals were jammed. Space was made, people called in, trauma beds made available. One by one the ambulances rolled out with the injured.
The winds continued to blow. The air temperature was 13 and the wind was blowing with gusts over 20 mph. It was bitter cold and the blowing snow made conditions unbearable. These firefighters and EMS personnel did the impossible. They did their jobs.
More help was requested. Spencerport, Hilton, Perinton, Brighton and Irondequoit sent people and vehicles. A staging area was set up at the nearby Public Safety Training Center. People trapped in vehicles were cut and pried out of what was left of their cars. Ambulances continued to transport to the area hospitals.
Mercy Flight was on standby. Other ambulance and fire departments were alerted and manned their quarters or responded to other agencies to fill in for their crews who were out at the MCI.
Honeoye Falls, Brockport, Lima and East Rochester were all called upon. I’m certain I’ve left off some agencies because this was the largest incident in recent memory and a lot of people contributed.
Yes, East Rochester, my medic and I, were asked to fill in at Gates Ambulance base. Our part was very, very small; we never went to the scene and never had to cover a call for Gates. We were there in case someone in Gates needed an ambulance.
By 2:45 p.m. EST, the incident was over. All patients had been extricated and transported. The agencies involved began to recover their equipment and put their rigs back in service.
Curiously, in that two hour time frame, the county was unusually calm. There were a handful of calls but agencies like Henrietta and Gates that have a high call volume were very quiet. It’s as if there was a pause so we could devote ourselves to this disaster.
The lives of a great many people were changed today. The families of the dead and gravely injured, those who were injured or just were in the incident. And, the firefighters and EMS staff are also affected. This is one of those career calls, that everyone involved will remember their entire career. It’ll be the story the old farts tell. It will be the call by which future calls are measured.
As the crews began to return to Gates Base, I could see in their eyes and hear in their voices that change that I am all too familiar with. These brave folks now have an unforgettable memory of tragedy and success, of destruction and rescue. It may be a burden. It may be a blessing.
I cannot calculate the number of people who worked on this call this day. Well over a hundred men and women, mostly volunteers but paid folks too, all professionals. There are people alive this minute because of their work. In that two hour span, safety, succor, life was given as best as could be done by people from all walks of life, from all over the county, working together.
I am proud to be a part of the EMS community in Monroe County. Today shows why.
Subscribe
Oops! Another place has just fallen off the globe. Other places that are no longer on the globe are: the Mid West, such as Chicago area; the Middle East, such as Baghdad, Jerusalem, Jordan which were sprinkled with the cold white stuff; then there is China, having their coldest winter in a hundred years.
I’m a dispatcher for EMS/Fire and Sheriff’s Office out in Oregon. I can only imagine the dispatch center (centers?) during this incident.
[Editor: You could hear the stress in their voices, but they are pros. They are nationally certified and show it.}
We’ve had some plane and train crashes but have not had a true MCI since the 1980’s. In that case it was smoke from field burning. Luckily we don’t have the weather conditions that you have there.
My daughter lives outside Buffalo and her in-laws assure me that the worst weather in upstate New York is Rochester.
Best of luck and may it be a long time before anything like this happens again.
Having lived in various places in Upstate New York for 39 years this type of mess in Rochester is a rarity. Ever since they ripped out the “Can of Worms” the flow of traffic greatly improved, but there’s still several places of engineering asshattery when it comes to merging lanes and curves. [Editor: the county and the airport went so far this morning as to issue a statement denying responsibility and stating that snow removal on that highway is the state's problem. No one ever heard of a snow fence?]
As for the worst weather in New York, it depends on what you consider bad weather. Rochester is best known for its crippling ices storms, where power is lost for weeks thanks to several inches of ice forming on power lines. Syracuse, on the other hand, continually beats snowfall records and gets the most snow for the large metropolitan areas. Oswego competes with the Adirondacks with nasty storms and high winds thanks to it’s position on Lake Ontario. Buffalo, IMO, is the quietest of the large cities in New York. The snowbelt skirts just south of the city, and with the exception of an occasional earthquake suffers mostly from self-inflicted injuries in snow removal. Weather in this state can be *very* interesting at times, and can be a source of entertainment. Go to Jamestown when they get a coating of ice and watch how traffic “flows” thanks to the hills and red brick streets they have.
Thanks for your service Chuck. It was nasty where I was, and I decided to stay home and not become part of the problem. I’d like to think that this accident would be a wakeup call for Rochester drivers to slow down in bad weather, but that’s a pipe dream. Especially when old ladies are giving me the finger for going too slow while I’m doing 75 on I-490.
You understand of course that Bush caused all this and FEMA is responsible for all damage by their lack of preparedness and poor response time. Remember, you heard it here first, but the MSM will be all over it within hours. [Editor: Was Al Gore in town?]
Well, I hate to be a problem but a couple points cry out for recognition.
That’s never been the best stretch along there with any kind of blowing snow… combine it with a northwest wind and you’re in serious problems. But the redesign of the airport, extending the runway as they did, made it worse. In my view, a serious re-thinking of that whole area’s landscaping is in order.
1: Extend the runway over 390, ending on the hill on the eastern side of the freeway, thus preventing much of the blowing onto the freeway at the Scottville Road exit.
2: Erect snow fences along the eastern fence line of the airport so as to control blowing snow out onto the freeway. This has been a continuing issue, exacerbated by the recent re-design.
3: I’m hearing reports, Chuck, which suggest that the more serious injuries were limited to the smaller vehicles. The girl who died, for example. [Editor: I've deleted my original comment because what I had heard then and what is now reported differ. I don't know about the small cars but I assume it's true.]
Chuck, thank you for your service. You guys are real pros and those were terrible conditions to work in yesterday. we live in the area and drove through the whiteout about 5-10 minutes before the accident occurred and we feel very fortunate this morning. I’m also glad there were no semis involved in the accident which could have made things much worse.
Driving though that whiteout was a freaky experience. Though the skies were clear at the time of the accident, a snow squall had just passed through the area less than an hour before. (We were eating at the restaurant across from the airport and couldn’t see the parking lot for the airport at times.) The high winds just blew the new snow across the interstate in one localized section, and when we drove home we rounded a corner and went from clear roads to no road and no visibility just like that. And as quick as it started, it stopped. I’d say there was less than a quarter mile of affected road.
We feel very fortunate as our thoughts are with all the victims. Please thank your buddies for all their work yesterday for us.
[Editor: Earlier yesterday I drove a patient to Rochester General on Empire. White out at the bay and again on 590 and 104. Very difficult to drive.]
Why do you live there?
[...] wind in northern New York on Sunday and it caused a mass causality event in Rochester. This from America’s North Shore Journal…. At about 12:38 p.m. EST today, the Monroe County 911 Center received a cellphone call reporting a [...]
as chucks partner on this call i think that anyone for rochester should give each and every ems and fire personal that was involved a big hand shake and thanks for a job well done
Chuck and Gerald,
Thank you for all the work you and all of the first responders do each and every day. Thank you also for keeping a blog and supporting the troops with excellent reports from the war front.
Dan Maloney
NY State Coordinator
Gathering of Eagles
“Why do you live there?”
I’ll answer for myself and not for Chuck, but….
A: Rochester hasn’t had any hurricanes within my lifetime.
“My daughter lives outside Buffalo and her in-laws assure me that the worst weather in upstate New York is Rochester.”
Ask your daughter about the Erie run down I-90. (Chuckle)
It’s about a draw, in the winter.
Bithead:
Then you must have been born since 1972.
I’ll take the 4 days of hurricane I’ve had in 17 years in Maryland over 1700 days of snow (or more) that you’ve had in Rochester in the same number of years. Of course you have to factor in other things, like my $200 max heating bill or my $4,000/year property tax on my $500,000 house, 6% income tax or gas at $2.80/gal.
Oh yeah, how many pages is the D&C want ads?
3.5% unemployment in Maryland…..