Police said the victim who died in a crash involving about 30 vehicles in a “cascading scenario” on the highway Friday night was a Highgate man in his 40s.
Stephen Ahearn, 44, died in the pileup on the snow-covered northbound lanes of Interstate 89 in Milton, north of Exit 17, Vermont State Police said in a press release.
Seven other people were taken by ambulance to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington for treatment of minor to moderate injuries, police said. Their injuries were not considered to be life-threatening.
The crash was reported at about 4 p.m. and closed the northbound roadway for nearly nine hours, until about 12:45 a.m., police said.
It occurred under “heavy snowfall and blowing snow, and the road was snow-covered and icy at the time,” police said.
Police described a “cascading scenario of multiple crashes and vehicles driving into the median and off the shoulder of the highway.” Among the roughly 30 vehicles in the pileup were several tractor-trailers and fully loaded log trucks.
More than 100 other vehicles were stuck on the roadway north of Exit 17 but south of the crash scene. Emergency responders helped some of them to turn around and drive south off the highway, while others were towed.
The investigation is ongoing and is expected to take a “significant” amount of time, police said.
Police asked anyone who was involved in the crash who has not spoken to investigators, or anyone who might have relevant information, to call the Williston Barracks at 802-878-7111.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Highgate man dies in 30-car crash that closed northbound highway for 9 hours.