40 vehicle pile up in Maine 

Maine partially reopened after 40-vehicle pileup. A crash Wednesday involving more than 40 vehicles shut down Interstate 95 for about five hours between Newport and Bangor, state police said. The crash — which involves cars, a school bus and a tractor trailer in the northbound lanes — injured at least 17 people, including at least two in serious condition, according to Maine State Police. Children on the bus were shaken up but not injured. The collisions began at about 7:30 a.m. ET in heavy snow falling near Etna, Maine, about 30 miles west of Bangor. The main crash involved more than two dozen vehicles, and a series of other wrecks — some with two or three vehicles and others in which vehicles slid off the road to avoid collisions — led up to the crash site, troopers said. Rhonda Kent, an occupational therapist from St. Albans, Maine, said her car was sideswiped amid the pileup, which sent cars and trucks spinning. She was not injured but said a logging truck came dangerously close to hitting her when it spun off into a ditch. It was almost surreal, something you see in the movies,” Kent said. Brian Graham of Newport was driving with his daughter when he got caught up in one of the chain-reaction crashes. “It was almost surreal, something you see in the movies.” Rhonda Kent, St. Albans, Maine “They were all pinging off of each other,” he said. The area was under a winter storm warning until 1 p.m. with an inch of snow recently fallen, and temperatures were in the upper teens much of the morning, according to the National Weather Service. Five to 9 inches of snow is expected to fall throughout the day. Emergency personnel climbed on top of cars to reach motorists stuck in the middle of the chaotic mass of vehicles. State police spokesman Steve McCausland said one veteran trooper described the site as a “giant pile of metal.” Among those stuck in the pileup were lawyers for Kyle Dube of Orono, Maine, accused of killing Nichole Cable of Glenburn, Maine, in May 2013 after Nichole left her house, telling her mother that she was going out to meet someone she knew from Facebook. They were speaking to Justice Ann Murray of Penobscot County Superior Court via cellphone, and the trial was in recess until all could arrive. Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber, a prosecutor in the case, said he was rear ended. Also caught up in the wreck and traffic backup were a witness and a juror. Rose Butts, a hospital housekeeper from Plymouth, Maine, said she swerved to miss part of the accident and hit a snow bank. She and a friend were not injured but waited in her car for five hours for help.