Seven hours later, at least 49 injured people had been treated, and workers had cleared wreckage from 17 separate accidents along an 11-mile stretch of the highway, one of the busiest on the East Coast. By Sunday morning, a steady stream of traffic flowed smoothly past the accident sites.
``To clear that much wreckage and to have that highway open in seven hours is a real testament to the troopers on the ground'' and the other emergency workers, said State Police Superintendent Col. Thomas ``Tim'' Hutchins.
Despite the number of crashes, only four people spent the night in area hospitals. No deaths were reported, and Hutchins said Sunday that the most serious injury appeared to be a broken leg _ ``a real miracle given the number of vehicles involved in this accident.''
Maryland State Police spokesman Maj. Greg Shipley said officials managed to clear the highway so quickly by dividing their forces and sending at least one trooper to each of the 17 crash sites.
``It was just like we were investigating 17 different crashes,'' Shipley said. ``For each one, we took care of the injured, we gathered the information from the people involved, and we got the vehicles off the highway.''
About 30 state troopers worked the accidents _ some photographing the wreckage, some measuring the distances between vehicles, some treating the injured and interviewing drivers. They were joined by about 20 Baltimore police officers and about 60 firefighters from three counties and Baltimore city.
Shipley said tow trucks from several companies in the area made multiple trips, often clearing three vehicles at a time from the scene. In all, 60 vehicles were towed from the interstate.
Maryland State Police Cpl. Rob Moroney said the pileup was worse than an 89-car pileup last year on Interstate 68 in western Maryland. That crash killed two people.
Cindy James, of Woodbridge Va., said that the highway during Saturday's crashes wasn't slippery, but the glare from the hail dumped by the storm was unusually strong, even while wearing sunglasses.
Susan Whickers, of Baltimore, said she knew she was in trouble when drivers in all four lanes slammed on their brakes.
``I was thinking, `Oh God,' because the car in front of us went right under a tractor-trailer,'' Whickers said.
Most of the crashes involved vehicles running into the back of other vehicles in chain reactions, Shipley said. Officials said the unusual weather contributed to the crashes, but that the investigation would continue. Shipley said Sunday that no one had been charged.
Two crash victims were in guarded but stable condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center on Sunday, said nursing coordinator Phillip Bovender. He said another victim was being brought to Shock Trauma from another hospital in serious but stable condition. He declined to give further specifics.
Bovender said Sunday that Maryland's ``emergency response system worked beautifully in the face of what could have been a major disaster.''
AP writers Todd Hallidy, Brian Witte and Wiley Hall contributed to this report.
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