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NEW COLUMBIA -- Two people -- one from Michigan and another from Montgomery County - were killed in Wednesday afternoon's multiple-vehicle pileup on Interstate 80 that shut down the westbound lanes of the highway for nearly 30 hours, according to state police at Milton.
A chain-reaction crash involving a total of 54 vehicles claimed the lives of motorists Edward Posavec, 53, of Hatfield, and Marek Szczepanczyk, 58, of Sterling Heights, Michigan, police said.
A band of snow squalls caused "limited visibility and hazardous road conditions," police said.
In addition, at least 30 other drivers or passengers were injured, some critically, police said. The majority of the injured were treated at Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg while others were taken to Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, and the Williamsport Regional Medical Center.
At Evangelical, the medical staff activated the hospital's incident command system so that all patients brought to the facility could be treated in an orderly fashion. The hospital received a total of 37 patients.
The hospital also served as a receiving center for nearly two dozen other people who "were not necessarily involved in the crash, but needed temporary refuge from the hazardous weather conditions," the hospital said in a news release.
The crash shut down both the eastbound and westbound lanes of the interstate. While the eastbound lanes re-opened about 8 p.m. Wednesday, the westbound lanes did not re-open until 6 p.m. Thursday.