Death toll from Monday snowstorm rises to 9

An ninth person has died as the result of multiple vehicle crashes that occurred on Monday as a winter storm blanketed parts of the state with up to 8 inches of snow.

Across Iowa, law enforcement agencies reported dozens of crashes that damaged more than 150 vehicles. Sgt. Nathan Ludwig, who has worked for Iowa State Patrol for nearly 20 years, said he could not remember another day this deadly on the roads.

“Today was very bad," Ludwig said, adding that more than one person was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. Authorities reported at least 10 people were injured in addition to those killed.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service recorded 5.4 inches of snow at the Des Moines International Airport, snapping a record 769-day stretch without 3 inches or more of snowfall in the city. The most snow fell in Wapello, which saw 8.5 inches, meteorologists said.

MORE: How much snow did Des Moines, other Iowa cities get?

Police responded to the first deadly crash at about 8:30 a.m., which killed two sisters, ages 13 and 17, when two vehicles collided on County Road W40 in Decorah in Winneshiek County. Four other teenagers, ages 14 and 15, were injured and hospitalized.

Those killed were identified as Avery Arneson, 17, and Aiden Arneson, 13, both of whom are from Decorah. The other passengers in the car were related to the girls, police said.

The crash occurred when a 1990 Oldsmobile Alero, driven by Avery Arneson, was traveling northbound on County Road W40 and lost control, crossed the center line and slid sideways, colliding with the passenger side of a 2008 Ford F-150, police said. The injured passengers were taken to Winneshiek Medical Center and Gundersen Hospital.

It was not immediately clear if weather contributed to the crash, though Jeff Ritzman, a colonel with State Patrol, suspected it did.

In Cedar Rapids, two men were pronounced dead and a third suffered serious injuries at about 11:20 a.m. in a crash on northbound Interstate Highway 380, police said. Weather appeared to be a factor in the crash, though police are still investigating, Cedar Rapids spokesman Greg Buelow said.

The two men killed were ages 21 and 24; their names have not been released. The third man was sent to UnityPoint-St. Luke’s Hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

When officers responded to the scene, they found a 2007 Mercury Montego that had left the roadway and struck a pillar support of a bridge overpass. No other vehicles were involved. The crash was one of 44 reported between 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. in Cedar Rapids, half of which occurred on I-380, Buelow said.

Around 1:40 p.m., a crash on I-80 west in Cedar County killed one person and injured two others, sending them to the hospital, according to an Iowa State Patrol report. A Pontiac G6 was driving north of Durant when it ran into a Toyota Corrola. The driver of the Pontiac then exited the vehicle and stood in front of it to examine the damage. Then a third driver in a Ford Escape ran into the Pontiac, pushing it forward and killing the driver who was in front of the car. No names have been released, pending family notification.

In another crash hours later, one person died and several people were critically injured in a major pileup involving 50 to 70 cars, buses and semi-trucks that forced Interstate Highway 35 southbound and northbound to close near Ames, authorities said.

Dana Easter, 53, of Independence, Missouri, was killed in the accident. Arlon Binning, 59, of Roland, and Marvin Burns, 54, of Independence, Missouri, were injured.

The crash had traffic backed up on the highway so far that Story County sheriff's Capt. Barry Thomas said he could not see from one end of the pileup to the other.

State Patrol responded to three additional crash scenes nearby, Ritzman said.

The road remained closed into Monday evening between 13th Street and U.S. 30 in Ames near mile marker 116, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation. It was the largest crash in the state Monday, said Ludwig, who described the pileup as "a mess."

In another crash that was suspected to be weather-related, a person was killed at about 1:20 p.m. on Interstate Highway 80 near mile marker 190 just east of Grinnell, Ritzman said. State Patrol responded to a secondary collision nearby, though few other details were immediately available.

Another person died in Cass County, four miles east of Atlantic on Monday, Ludwig said. Details regarding the crash have not been released yet.

A ninth fatality related to the storm was reported Tuesday evening.

According to an Iowa State Patrol crash report, Christopher James Feldman, 41, was driving a Toyota Tacoma north on Highway 63 when he lost control of his vehicle near mile marker 26 in Davis County at around 10:45 p.m.

Feldman's vehicle collided with a southbound 2017 Mack tractor trailer driven by Marion Zook, 61, of Ankeny. Sgt. Scott Bright of the Iowa State Patrol said it was a head-on collision.

The accident is still under investigation, but Bright said the collision was weather-related.

State Patrol responded to 185 crashes from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday throughout Iowa.

Since 2001, the most people killed on Iowa roads in a single day was 11 on Jan. 13, 2014, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation. There were four fatal crashes that day.