Ice causes 21-vehicle crash in Oklahoma City

Interstate 40 was closed for more than five hours at its intersection with I-35 near downtown Oklahoma City after 10 accidents involving 21 vehicles. Both highways are major thoroughfares, but traffic was light because most holiday travelers were already at their destinations.

A powerful storm system expected to bring blizzard-like conditions to Arkansas later Tuesday swept into the Southern Plains overnight. Some parts of Arkansas' Ozark Mountains could get up to 10 inches of snow and blizzard conditions were possible from northeastern Arkansas through the Missouri Bootheel and into southern Illinois and Indiana from Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning.

The pileup in Oklahoma City began about 3 a.m. when a semitrailer jackknifed on Interstate 40 on a bridge over the Oklahoma River, state Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph said. Other vehicles hit the semi, and then other semis slid into them, sandwiching the vehicles, she said.

"Some of them, it took the entire top of the car off, like they slid under a semi," Randolph said.