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LOCK HAVEN -- Pennsylvania State Police have released the names of the two people killed in Wednesday's crash along Interstate 80 in Greene Township.
According to police, the crash victim was Falon Morris, 24, of Hollidaysburg. A man, James Faqua, 56, of Mebane, N.C., died from a medical issue that was not related to the accident.
All other crash victims are currently known to be in "stable" condition with varying degrees of injuries.
I-80 westbound is partially open (left lane) with no detour. The right lane was expected to be open by last night.
The crash was reported during Wednesday afternoon's snowstorm. The crash took place in the westbound lanes of Interstate 80 in Clinton County between the Loganton and Lock Haven exits.
Police say that preliminary counts indicate that 66 total vehicles, including 55 commercial vehicles and 11 passenger vehicles were involved in multiple crashes over the one-mile span.
Both lanes were closed for a significant amount of time from the Interstate 180 interchange in Northumberland County to the 178/Lock Haven interchange in Clinton County due to the multi-vehicle accident in Clinton County, according to a PennDOT spokesperson.
Traffic was being detoured at the I-180 interchange and directed to follow Interstate 180 west and state Route 220 south.
Fire companies and emergency responders from Centre, Clinton, Lycoming and Union counties responded to the scene. The initial call went out around 3 p.m., according to a news release from state police.
The Clinton County Commissioners offered their thanks to the emergency responders and others who took part in assisting with the crash.
"I just want to briefly acknowledge the folks in our community and actually in the tri-county area that took their time as volunteers to assist in that situation … save lives and take care of the people that were involved," Commissioner Angela Harding said.
Harding listed the dozens of police united from Clinton, Centre, Lycoming and Union counties that were on-scene as well as Clinton County Coroner Zach Hanna, PEMA, PennDOT, Eagle Towing and Recovery, a critical care unit from Danville and Susquehanna Transit who helped people from the scene who couldn't drive.
"With everything going on in our community, once again heroes in our community continue to be the first responders and the people who showed up on the scene and do everything they could," she said.
Sheriff Kerry Stover noted that Sheetz and Dunkin Donuts also provided coffee and donuts to the rescue crews as they continued to work throughout the night. "Thank you to those businesses as well," he said.
"As Commissioner Harding said, we just want to thank everyone that was out there all night and everyone that donated," Commissioner Jeff Snyder said. "It's quite a tragedy and you hate to see this happen anywhere but especially in our county."
Commissioner Miles Kessinger noted that this wasn't the first accident in that stretch of Interstate 80.
"They just don't slow down on that road when it snows," he said. "Watching the weather station last night … it's always interesting when we get to make national news but last night we were making it for the wrong reasons."
Stover noted that the crash was a new experience for many involved.
"I can tell you, everybody trains for those type of situations but what I saw last night … the way they were extricating those people … there's not training set up to do that," he said. "It's just the knowledge that you gain over the years and trial and error trying to free people."
"It was unfortunate but it was really something to see, everybody working together and doing their part," he continued.
The crash occurred not far from the site of a 58-vehicle crash a year ago Friday in a snow squall in which two people were killed.
Wednesday's storm dumped nearly two feet of snow on the Lock Haven area.