UPDATE: All lanes reopened Tuesday morning

PLUS: Ice officially blamed for 40-vehicle mess

CRANBURY -- One person was killed in an accident involving several vehicles on the southbound New Jersey Turnpike near mile marker 71, a State Police spokesman said Monday.

The accident occurred around 9:11 p.m. and involved more than 15 vehicles, including four tractor-trailers, a fully loaded bus and two box trucks. All southbound lanes were closed, Sgt. Jeff Flynn said.

Flynn did not have a precise count on how many people were hurt, stating there were "multiple injuries".

This screen shot shows the New Jersey Turnpike near the Molly Pitcher rest area, where a multivehicle accident claimed at least one life Monday, Feb. 9.

Traffic was being diverted at Interchange 9, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority said via social media.

A spokesman for the authority, Tom Feeney, told News 4 New York that there were two separate incidents, one on the outer roadway and another on the inner roadway.

About 15 passenger cars were involved in an accident on the inner roadway and a total of seven trucks, a bus and more cars in an accident on the outer roadway, the Turnpike Authority said. The speed limit had been reduced to 35 mph from Interchange 6 to Exit 12, Feeney said.

A Massachusetts woman, Cindy Sattal, who was traveling in the area with her husband and a co-worker on business, said freezing rain began to come down shortly before the accident occurred.

"I stuck my hand out to wipe off the rear-view mirror and it was freezing on contact," said Sattal, who along with other motorists had been at a standstill for at least 90 minutes as of 11:30 p.m.

"Everybody's pretty quiet. Everybody's being very patient," she told NJ Advance Media.

Periods of freezing rain were part of the wintry mix of precipitation forecast throughout the day and evening Monday in New Jersey, according to the National Weather Service in Mt. Holly.

Images from social media showed a vehicle engulfed in flame as well as a bus slammed into the rear of a tractor-trailer.

Just after midnight, the Middlesex County Emergency Services mobile command center pulled into the emergency room bay at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, followed by multiple ambulances. It remains unclear exactly how many injured in the crash were transported to the hospital.

Traffic remained backed up just north of the accidents unit about 1 a.m. Some motorists were seen congregating at the Molly Pitcher rest stop early Tuesday morning. Traffic began to flow along the inner car lanes by about 1:30 a.m., witnesses said. The traffic streamed past emergency vehicles that lined the southbound outer lanes.

At least two tractor trailers were jack-knifed into a center wall and several cars were smashed. Tow trucks were standing by shortly before 2 a.m.

As of 5 a.m. the outer roadway remained closed south of interchange 9 for emergency work, according to an advisory.

#BREAKING: Fatal crash in Cranbury NJ on NJ Tpk involving 15 vehicles. http://t.co/vWU81dpfxP pic.twitter.com/p4D9vGJWze — FOX 29 (@FOX29philly) February 10, 2015

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @PaulMilo2. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Staff members Ashley Peskoe, Andy Mills and Vernal Coleman contributed to this report.