59-Vehicle Pileup Closed New Hampshire Highway; 12 Injured

A 59-vehicle pileup on snowy Interstate 93 sent a dozen people to hospitals last Sunday morning and temporarily shut down a stretch of the highway’s northbound lanes.

The most common injuries were broken ankles and legs, and none were life threatening, said Derry Fire Battalion Chief Jack Webb.

The crash happened around 9 a.m. between exits 3 and 4 in Derry and involved 46 cars, three buses, two tractor trailers and eight trucks, Webb said. It took emergency crews about an hour to remove one man from a car wedged under the back of a tractor trailer, but the man suffered only minor injuries.

Witnesses told WMUR-TV that a charter bus carrying a group of Boy Scouts from Massachusetts was at the front of the crash and was trying to avoid another car that had gone out of control. Another bus carrying the University of Massachusetts-Boston women’s hockey team also was involved. Some of the women held up a sign saying “We are OK” after the doors to the bus were blocked by crashed cars.

Traffic was detoured to Route 28 until the highway was reopened around 1:30 p.m.