The fact that a 70-car pileup only sent 10 people to hospital Friday afternoon is “miraculous,” according to one OPP officer.

Just one of those people remains in hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, out of an original three. After the crash, several people checked themselves in with minor injuries.

The collision happened just after 3 p.m. on Hwy. 401, about 80 kilometres east of Toronto. While many are citing weather as the cause, Const. Linda Wolf said that’s only one of the issues.

“Yes, weather will play a factor, however, we can’t blame the weather for the crash,” she said. “It’s obviously drivers’ reactions in weather conditions of that nature that led to the crash.”

As the flow of traffic came to a stop, there were more collisions, Wolf said.

The 10 kilometre stretch was closed for hours, with tow trucks starting to remove the smashed vehicles around 7:30 p.m., gradually opening a lane for backed-up traffic. The eastbound lanes reopening just before 10:30 p.m., and the westbound lanes at 11:40 p.m.

Drivers were taken by bus to a recreation centre in nearby Newcastle to be interviewed by police before being returned to their vehicles.

“There will be a lot of follow-up,” Wolf said. “It’ll be a while before we can actually give an honest determination of how it all unfolded.”

With files from Star staff and Canadian Press