A pedestrian narrowly avoided being crushed by a runaway car on an icy Seattle hill – one of a series of accidents caused by the monster snowstorm that slammed the United States this weekend.
A “unique” storm across most of the United States intensified on Friday as snowstorm conditions and hurricane-force winds grounded thousands of flights and left nearly a million and a half homes without power.
Extremely freezing conditions in Seattle were caused by an arctic blast that hit the Pacific Northwest.
Video in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle shows a car sliding down a hill and hitting a person, but fortunately they are thrown rather than crushed as it rolls down the hill.
A pedestrian narrowly avoided being crushed by a runaway car on an icy Seattle hillside, one of a series of vehicle mishaps that have proved fatal in many cases as blustery conditions prevail across much of America
One person is clearly trying to walk to the sidewalk when the car suddenly begins to skid just a few feet from their recumbent body.
The person first tries to get in the way of the car and stop it before it hits them, and they can distract while the car is going down the hill.
First responders arrived at the scene and found an elderly couple in the car who suffered “very minor injuries,” according to KOMO.
They had to use ropes and stretchers to get the couple back up the hill to keep them from falling onto the ice.
A separate video filmed by a reporter near Seattle’s Judkin’s Park showed two people narrowly escaping when they were hit by a Range Rover that was flying down the road completely out of control. Fortunately, no one was injured, they say KIRO.
More than 10,000 flights were also delayed by the weather, and the knock-on effect is likely to see the post-storm chaos continue. Seattle-Tacoma Airport closed its runways indefinitely on Friday morning to de-ice surfaces.
All bus service was suspended in the greater Seattle area Friday morning, and DoorDash suspended delivery service due to unsafe conditions in parts of several states, including Minnesota and Iowa.
First responders arrived at the scene and found an elderly couple in the car suffering “very minor injuries.”
A separate video filmed by a reporter near Judkin’s Park in Seattle showed two people narrowly escaping when they were hit by a Rolls Royce that was flying down the street completely out of control.
More than 10,000 flights were also delayed by the weather, and the knock-on effect is likely to see the post-storm chaos continue. Seattle-Tacoma Airport closed its runways indefinitely on Friday morning to de-ice surfaces
Fortunately, despite the accident, no one was injured from this incident
A 50-car pile-up was reported in Ohio, killing at least four people. The accidents occurred Friday afternoon along eastbound Interstate 80 between Route 53 and State Route 4 in Sandusky County, near Groton Township and the Erie County Line
Jackknife trucks crunched with cars, and vehicles slid into each other as the chaos unfolded. A pickup truck can be seen in the air to the left
A truck, in the back of the photo, is seen being thrown into the air in the pile-up. Cars and SUVs were crushed by trucks
The crash was reported Friday at Ohio Turnpike 106 in snowstorm conditions. Buses were taking people from the scene to a local facility to keep warm
Motorists have been warned not to take to the roads – even as the nation hit what is typically the busiest travel time of the year.
In Ohio, four people have died “as a result of weather-related auto accidents” after a 50-vehicle crash on the Ohio Turnpike, according to Gov. Mike DeWine, and several others were injured.
A state police spokesman said the first crash occurred around 11:45 a.m. Friday morning, and the massive pile-up happened around 12:30 p.m
They added: “It’s going to be a while yet. There are many soldiers and first responders out there working on it.’
The brutal “bomb cyclone” is “gaining strength rapidly,” threatening temperatures colder than Mars in some Midwestern states.
Garrett Fuller, left, helps his friend Robin Jacobs stand up after he slipped on the icy ground on Capitol Hill in Seattle on Friday
A leaf of a Japanese maple tree is surrounded by ice in the backyard of a home in Burien, Washington
The deadly Arctic storm just days before Christmas has threatened vacation plans for millions of Americans and sparked national alarms.
Almost two-thirds of the United States is under winter weather warning, with snow causing thousands of flight cancellations ahead of the busiest weekend of the year. FlightAware’s latest figures say 3,100 flights were canceled for Friday alone after thousands more were grounded on Thursday.
Ten million Americans brace for the coldest Christmas in living memory, with cities in Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania expecting record lows.
At least 10 people died this week in vehicle accidents that authorities said were likely related to the storm in Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma, with a 50-car pile-up in Ohio and 100 crashes north of the Canadian border in the Near London, Ontario.
At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, 357 flights, or 63% of departures, were canceled on Friday. The FAA lifted a ground stop there because of snow and ice, but late Friday delays still averaged nearly three hours.