Photo provided by Fredonia Fire Department Fredonia Fire Chief Josh Myers said there were seven injuries, but no fatalities, in this Jan. 20 pileup on the Thruway that involved at least 60 vehicles.

Fredonia Fire Chief Josh Myers is amazed no one died in a large pileup Jan. 20 on the westbound Thruway. He’d also like to know why the road was not closed, despite brutal blizzard-like conditions.

Fredonia Trustee Paul Wandel asked the chief for a report on the accident at a Board of Trustees workshop. “Do you think it went well, any critiques you can make in hindsight on that?” Wandel inquired.

“We had a motor vehicle accident on (Interstate) 90 westbound, like you referenced,” Myers began. “All that came in through dispatch was ‘multi-vehicle accident, unknown if injuries.’ We get up there, it was a sizable accident. There was basically two scenes. All in all, there was about 60-65 vehicles between commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles.”

Myers called it a “big wreck, one of the top ones I’ve seen in my career. There was seven people transported to the hospital. Multiple people evaluated and signed off on scene.”

He continued, “My honest opinion is, I’m surprised there wasn’t a fatality. Just seeing some of the cars up there, someone should have died. They were lucky.”

Though Myers said he would not speculate as to the exact cause of the accident, he noted that it came in whiteout conditions.

“We implemented our mutual aid plan. Not only Chautauqua County Emergency Medical Services came out but we had our surrounding fire departments come up, both to the Thruway — I set up a staging location at the entrance to the Thruway — and then also backfill our station in case any additional calls came in.”

Myers concluded, “The short answer is, I think it went very well. The longer answer is, we indemnified some things internally…with communications with our mutual aid partners.”

He plans to meet with mutual aid partners in February about the issues.

Fredonians were horrified by photos from the wreck — and outraged that the barriers to close off the Thruway exit were not down until after the accident, despite the horrible weather. Wandel brought up the topic.

“It was relayed to me multiple times as incident commander that the Thruway arms were closed. But then I had responders…telling me they were still open,” Myers said. “So that’s one of the things I’m going to address is, where did that happen? Were they closed and a civilian opened them back up? It’s possible. I don’t want to speculate and say someone didn’t do their job.”

State Police issued a statement about the crash around 2:30 p.m. Jan. 20 in which it stated the westbound Thruway was closed between the Fredonia and Westfield exits, “with additional lane closures in the area.”

Mayor Michael Ferguson stated: “While we can point fingers all over the place, of what we should have done and could have done — as citizens of the community, some common sense sometimes needs to take place when it comes to driving in winter conditions or inclement weather.”