Snow Slows Morning Commute, Causes 40-Vehicle Pileup

DETROIT (AP/WWJ) Another big snow event struck metro Detroit overnight Monday, slowing the morning commute and leaving local expressways a snowy, slushy mess.

"Some of the freeways, I am seeing a couple of lanes (that aren't covered) ... We are making some progress on the snow," forecaster John Bailey said, adding a number of spinouts were reported locally, including in Dearborn and St. Clair Shores.

A water main break flooded the area near Campus Martius.

Three to four inches of snow fell in areas like Ann Arbor, Farmington and Dearborn - while there were higher totals down river and in Monroe County with Wyandotte and Dundee picking up around five inches.

The highest totals in the story were to the north where the Saginaw / Bay City area picked up over 6 inches.

Today's snow was enough to push Detroit into the top three snowiest winters on record.  With more than 76.4 inches of snow -- it topped the record set during the 1981-82 season.

But things could be worse in metro Detroit. The storm dropped record-breaking levels of snow on parts of western Michigan, leading to crashes including a roughly 40-vehicle freeway pileup.

The Van Buren County sheriff's department says six people had injuries that weren't considered life threatening following the Monday evening pileup on the eastbound side of I-94 in Paw Paw Township, about 55 miles southwest of Grand Rapids.

Sheriff Dale Gribler says a semi lost control, sparking a chain-reaction crash. Snowy weather and drivers going too fast are to blame.

The National Weather Service says the storm broke some daily snow records for Feb. 17, including 6.2 inches falling Monday in Muskegon and 5.6 inches in Grand Rapids. In southeastern Michigan, totals ranged from 2.5 to 4 inches in the Detroit area to 5 inches in Saginaw County.

*Copyright 2014, the Associated Press contributed to this report.