Icy conditions lead to 12 vehicles crashing at Outer Drive intersection

Icy conditions caused a pile up of car accidents at Outer Drive and Grandville on Wednesday.

Crash debris like car parts littered the snow as well a run-over street sign. Just feet from there, two EMT workers had to dive into the snow to get out of the way of drivers who couldn't stop.

The aftermath of one such collision was when a car slid into the back of ambulance and burst into flames. The quick thinking EMT grabbed an extinguisher and puts the fire out. 

The ambulance only in this position because they were trying to prevent people from crashing into one another. 

Tanja Appling was driving one of the first cars involved in a crash there.

"I can't believe we are alive," she said. "My passenger and I were okay.

"It was just pure ice. We went from the middle all the way over to the tree."
 
All of it happened in a half-hour span at about 9 a.m. Wednesday.  Salt trucks came by after the fact as police shut down this stretch of road for an hour. 

As Appling watched her car get towed, she can't help but think of the others.

"We saw people were getting ready to crash so we jumped out," she said. 

She says there were a dozen or vehicles which crashed but didn't stick around. 

"They're gone and they left us," Appling said. "And some of them hit pretty hard."

As for Appling, a cab eventually took her safely away knowing how lucky she was to be leaving uninjured.

"At least everyone is safe," she said. "It was just very dangerous for a brief period of time."