Video captures multi-vehicle pileup on Iowa highway that injures at least 1

At least one person was seriously injured after a multi-vehicle pileup on Interstate Highway 80 in Iowa near Des Moines.

The incident occurred on Monday morning and saw up to 50 vehicles involved.

According to Iowa State Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Alex Dinkla, one person was seriously injured in the wreck. As of 12 p.m. CT, the Des Moines Register reports, police were still accounting for all vehicles involved and the cause of the crash was still unknown.

“That’s a testament to the way some of these vehicles are built, but ultimately that driver did have their seatbelt on and could have saved his life today,” he told CBS affiliate KCCI 8.

The highway was closed between the Highway 65 exit and the exit to Interstate 235, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation, but as of 3:15 p.m. CT, Iowa State Patrol tweeted the westbound lanes had reopened.

KCCI 8 reporter Tisia Muzinga, who was originally in the area covering a small crash, called it a “very scary scene.”

“As we got into our car, we looked up and all of a sudden we saw semis running into each other, one after another, and other cars just kind of pulling off to the side,” she said.

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Kristi Meyer said the roads were slick even when driving slowly.

“Weren’t going that fast, but when you hit the brakes, you totally slid on the ice,” she told KCCI.

Video captured by KCCI showed multiple vehicles running into several semi-trucks on a snowy part of the road.

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A cold front had moved into Central Iowa during the morning, bringing both wind and snow.

According to the Weather Channel, there were wind gusts of up to 48 km/h, or 30 miles per hour, and visibility in the area dropped to about a quarter of a mile.

“This was a pretty classic example of a snow squall visibility drop,” meteorologist Chris Dolce said.

“Visibility was 10 miles before the crash, only 1/4 of a mile during the crash, and is now back up to eight miles after the crash.”

There have been no deaths reported as of Monday afternoon.