UPDATES:

--From dead to alive on I-94: Paramedics revive pileup victim thought dead

--Highway reopened

HARTFORD, MI - Two people are dead and another was struggling to survive after a mammoth Sunday afternoon car crash on I-94 near Hartford that some motorists are attributing to snowy, white-out conditions.

Three pile-ups occurred in the same part of the interstate, involving nine vehicles, then 44, then 12, police reported.

Michigan State Police troopers say they were clearing a 2 p.m. crash that involved nine vehicles in the eastbound lanes of I-94 just west of Hartford, near Exit 46, when a larger pile-up occurred as cars and trucks a quarter-mile away, approaching that section of the highway, failed to stop.

Police divert traffic from I-94 onto Red Arrow Highway on Sunday (Jan. 17, 2016). Following pile-ups that involved a total of 65 cars and trucks that afternoon, police hoped to have the interstate highway reopened by 8 p.m. Sunday.

"I was informed that the first crash involved nine vehicles, involving minor injuries," said Lt. Melinda Logan, public information officer for the Michigan State Police. "The crash came to a rest and many vehicles (that approached that initial crash) were able to safely stop and not get into the crash. About a quarter of a mile from that actual crash, two semitrucks got into a crash which resulted in a 44-car pile-up."

Police closed down the eastbound lanes of I-94 in Van Buren County, from Exit 42, the Watervlient exit, to Exit 46, near Hartford, to clear the site.

Motorists said that low-visibility conditions were a problem in the westbound lanes, where Logan said six semitrucks and six cars were involved in a pile-up not long after the first two pile-ups. That resulted in police closing the westbound lanes of I-94 from Exit 52, near Lawrence, to Exit 42, near Watervliet.

Logan said she did not yet know how many people were injured in Sunday's crashes but among them was a motorist who suffered a broken leg and a Van Buren County Sheriff's deputy who was outside his patrol car helping that man when the deputy was struck by a passenger car.

Logan said the deputy was treated at a local hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening.

She said troopers were checking four area hospitals for people who may have been injured in the crashes. There was no word on which hospital was treating a person who she said is facing life-threatening injuries as a result of the crashes.

Troopers did not have any information on that person. Logan spoke with a reporter while emergency responders were still working to help those involved.

Logan said that while some drivers reported low-visibility and white-out conditions, troopers may attribute the cause for the bang-ups to motorists driving too fast for road conditions and driving without leaving enough distance between themselves and other motorists.

A bus from the Hartford Community Schools transported people who were not injured to Hartford Federated Church in downtown Hartford to be interviewed by investigators trying to learn how the crashes occurred. The American Red Cross was assisting people at the church.

Logan said tow trucks were working hard to clear the crash sites and troopers hoped to have I-94 completely reopened to traffic by 8 p.m. Sunday.

Sunday's crashes occurred about 50 miles west of the site of a 193-car pileup in eastern Kalamazoo County during a winter storm Jan. 9, 2015.

RELATED: Study shows Van Buren County has highest crash rate on I-94 in Southwest Michigan.

Kalamazoo Gazette/MLive writer Al Jones may be contacted at ajones5@mlive.com. Follow me on Twitter at ajones5_al