61-car pileup on the MN 55 Mendota Bridge

[froggie]

A 61 car pile-up mid-day today on the Mendota Bridge (MN 55)...on the Mendota Heights side.  Some wild video was posted by the driver of one of the first cars caught up in it.  Reports indicate that 2 cars lost control mid-bridge and crashed, causing a semi following behind them to jackknife.  With slick conditions due to snow this morning, cars following behind just continued skidding/sliding into the mess, as can be seen (and heard) in the video.

One person was taken to the hospital....amazingly there were only minor injuries otherwise.

For those unfamiliar, the Mendota Bridge is the MN 55 crossing of the Minnesota River valley...about 0.8 mile long.  It's an impressive concrete arch span (once the longest such bridge in the world) built in the mid-1920s and rehabilitated in 1992-93.  MN 55 is effectively a 4-lane 55 MPH freeway on the bridge and its approaches.