At Least 27 Killed In Snowstorm-Related Deaths

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

At least 25 people have
died as a result of the mammoth snowstorm that pounded the eastern U.S.
The deaths occurred in car accidents, from carbon monoxide poisoning,
and from heart attacks while shoveling snow:

KENTUCKY

— A
Kentucky transportation worker died Saturday while plowing snow-covered
highways, officials said. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet identified
him in a statement as Christopher Adams. The statement says Adams
called a supervisor about 5:50 a.m., saying his plow slid into a ditch.
When the supervisor arrived, Adams was slumped over, unresponsive in his
seat. A cause of death has not been released.

— A man died in
southeastern Kentucky when his car collided with a salt truck Thursday,
state police said. Billy R. Stevens, 59, of Williamsburg was pronounced
dead at the scene on state Route 92 in Whitley County.

MARYLAND


Two people have died from heart attacks while shoveling snow in
Maryland. A 49-year-old man suffered cardiac arrest while shoveling in
Abingdon on Saturday, County Executive Barry Glassman said Sunday.
Officials in Prince George’s County said a man collapsed and died
Saturday while shoveling snow in Fort Washington. And Baltimore
officials say the city saw one possibly snow-related death, but did not
give details.

NEW JERSEY

— A 23-year-old New Jersey mom and
her year-old son died of carbon monoxide poisoning while sitting in a
running car that had its tailpipe covered in snow, The Record reported,
citing Passaic police. The woman’s 3-year-old daughter was also hurt and
was hospitalized in “very critical condition,” police said. Authorities
believe they were watching other family members shovel snow and didn’t
realize what was happening.

NEW YORK

— Three people died
while shoveling snow in New York City, police said. The New York Police
Department’s Chief of Department Jim O’Neill told reporters Saturday one
person on Staten Island and two people in Queens died. He released no
further details on the deaths. A police spokesman said the medical
examiner’s office will determine exactly how they died.

NORTH CAROLINA


Six people have died in car accidents during the storm, authorities
have said, including a 4-year-old boy who died Friday afternoon after
the pickup truck carrying his family on Interstate 77 near Troutman spun
out of control and crashed.

OHIO

— A teenager sledding
behind an all-terrain vehicle was hit by a truck and killed Friday, the
State Highway Patrol said. The truck failed to yield at a traffic light
and hit the sled, which the ATV was pulling in Wheelersburg, the highway
patrol said.

PENNSYLVANIA

— Authorities in eastern
Pennsylvania say a man died of carbon monoxide poisoning, apparently
after his car was buried in snow by a passing plow. David Perrotto, 56,
was pronounced dead less than an hour after he was found Saturday night
in Muhlenberg Township, according to John Hollenbach of the Berks County
coroner’s office. Hollenbach says Perrotto was apparently trying to dig
out his car. Investigators believe he either was in the car with the
motor running to take a break or to try to get out of the space when a
snow plow went by and buried the car, blocking the exhaust and
preventing him from exiting. Another person trying to dig out their
vehicle found the running car. Perrotto was pronounced dead at a
hospital emergency room.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Three people have died in South Carolina:


Authorities say an elderly couple in Greenville died of probable carbon
monoxide poisoning. Ruby Bell, 86, and her husband, 87-year-old Robert
Bell, were found dead at home by their son over the weekend, Greenville
County Coroner Parks Evans said in an email. He said the time of death
was believed to be Friday night. Russell Watson, the Duncan Chapel Fire
District chief, told The Greenville News that the couple had lost power
during the storm and a relative had set up a generator in their garage.
Watson said the relative left the garage door propped open with a
ladder, but it somehow closed and the generator filled the house with
carbon monoxide.

— The South Carolina Highway Patrol says a
44-year-old man was killed after being struck by a vehicle that slid out
of control after hitting a patch of ice. The crash happened Saturday
afternoon in Greenville County, the highway patrol said in a news
release.

TENNESSEE

— A car slid off the roadway due to speed
and slick conditions, killing the driver and injuring a passenger, the
Knox County sheriff’s department said.

— A couple in a vehicle
slid off an icy road and plummeted down a 300-foot embankment Wednesday
night, killing the woman who was driving, said Carter County Sheriff
Dexter Lunceford. Stacy Sherrill’s husband, a passenger in the car,
survived the crash. It took him several hours to climb the embankment
and report the accident.

VIRGINIA

— The number of
storm-related deaths in Virginia has risen to five. A man was killed on
Saturday in a single-vehicle crash in Virginia Beach that police blamed
on speed and icy road conditions, and Virginia Tech filmmaker Jerry
Scheeler died Friday while shoveling snow outside his new house in
Daleville, local news media reported Sunday. On Saturday, the state
medical examiner’s office confirmed three other storm deaths. They
included a single-vehicle crash in Chesapeake and deaths in Hampton and
southwest Virginia from hypothermia.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.

Latest News
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: