Nearly 50 people were injured, but no deaths were reported in the crashes along an 11-mile stretch of I-95 in suburban Baltimore, officials said.
State Police Superintendent Col. Thomas ``Tim'' Hutchins said Sunday that the most serious injury appeared to be a person with a broken leg. ``That's a real miracle given the number of vehicles involved in this accident,'' he said.
All lanes were reopened by 11:40 p.m. Saturday, and traffic was moving smoothly. The accidents started happening about 4:30 p.m. between White Marsh and Bel Air, after hail and rain fell on the highway. The wreckage forced authorities to close a portion of the interstate for hours. Sixty vehicles were towed away.
``To clear that much wreckage and to have that highway open in seven hours is a real testament to the troopers on the ground'' and the other emergency workers, Hutchins said.
Cindy James, of Woodbridge Va., said the road wasn't slippery but the glare was unusually strong from sleet on the road, even while wearing sunglasses.
``Everybody stopped because of the glare and the sleet,'' said James' 15-year-old daughter, Veronica.
Susan Whickers, of Baltimore, said she knew she was in trouble when drivers in all four lanes slammed on their brakes.
``I was thinking, `Oh God,' because the car in front of us went right under a tractor-trailer,'' Whickers said.
Leslie Baker, an emergency medical technician with the Joppa Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company, said she knew of 49 people who had been injured, including 22 in one crash involving a bus with 30 people aboard.
Baker said that while she was helping at that accident, she saw other crashes happen, one involving a tractor-trailer running over another vehicle.
Despite the number of crashes, only four people were hospitalized overnight: one at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center, two at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center and one at Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital.
The two victims at Shock Trauma were in guarded but stable condition on Sunday, said nursing coordinator Phillip Bovender. He said another victim was being brought to Shock Trauma from another hospital in serious but stable condition. He declined to give specifics about the injuries.
Bovender said deaths from the accidents were prevented by the fast work of the state's emergency workers, who rushed the injured to hospitals. ``The emergency response system worked beautifully in the face of what could have been a major disaster,'' he said.
Maryland State Police Cpl. Rob Moroney said the pileup was worse than an 89-car pileup last year on Interstate 68 in western Maryland. That crash killed two people.
``It's just unbelievable,'' Moroney said. ``Amazingly, amazingly, so far, we have no fatalities. We're very, very, very, very happy that it's gone that way so far.''
