Massive 41-car pileup injures a dozen people in Virginia

A 41-vehicle pileup on a Virginia highway brought traffic to a standstill for hours and sent at least a dozen people to the hospital, officials said. The accident on Interstate 81 in western Virginia's Rockbridge County happened just before 5 p.m. and took about six hours to clear, WSET-TV, Lynchburg, Va., reported Sunday. Slick, shiny roads from an earlier heavy rain were said to have led to the accident. "It's like of course the rain and then the sun came out and the sun was so bright and no one could see 50 feet in front of them," said Shay and Danielle Tippens of North Carolina. "We were trying to do the best we could, and then people just started going off the road." Robert Foresman, Rockbridge County's emergency management coordinator, said 10 to 15 people taken to the hospital, the Roanoke (Va.) Times reported. Information about the type of injuries and the condition of the injured was not immediately available. Tractor-trailer trucks and mobile homes were among the vehicles caught up in the accident. All the automobiles had been removed from the road by 11 p.m., allowing the highway to be reopened. County crews said the tractor-trailers would be hauled off by Monday night. Some 15 of the vehicles were damaged in a secondary accident behind the initial collision, Foresman said.