When Jason Breed, a field technician at Columbia Gas of Ohio, started on the 3.5-hour drive from Toledo to Pittsburgh for a pre-Christmas Steelers game, there was barely a flurry in sight. But in less than half an hour, pockets of whiteout began obliterating the view of the highway for five seconds at a time.
Suddenly, Breed glimpsed bright red brake lights ahead through the driving snow and realized traffic was at a standstill.
Harking back to his utility driver safety training, Breed was already going only 35 miles per hour and had chosen to travel in the middle lane so he had the flexibility of “somewhere to go” in case of an accident. After making sure it was safe to do so, he swiftly steered his truck all the way to the left and parked against the cement divider. Twenty seconds later, he saw a semi-trailer truck slam into a car stopped in the middle lane and explode into pieces.
The multicar wreck on the Ohio Turnpike on Dec. 23, 2022, would end up involving 51 vehicles, costing the lives of four people and injuring 73 more. Thanks to his training—and some sheer luck—Breed’s truck was the only one that didn’t sustain any damage.
After Breed saw that first crash, he knew he had to get his family out of there. As they hurried out of the truck and started to jump over the divider to safety, he happened to see his family’s suitcase, overstuffed with coats, blankets, gloves, hats and other cold-weather gear for the outdoor Steelers game. “Something sparked, and I just grabbed it,” Breed said.
Then, all they could hear was a resounding “boom, boom, boom” as vehicles piled into each other. Afterward, Breed and his family could see other people huddled against the wall on the opposite side of the highway. After making sure traffic was clear, they raced across, holding hands, with Breed still holding the suitcase.
With most people expecting a warm and comfortable drive inside their cars to their destinations, many were not dressed for extreme weather. But outside, the temperature had dropped to minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit with the wind chill. “When we were running, before we could get across, our eyes were frozen shut, that’s how cold it was,” said Breed.
Breed threw open the suitcase, and he and his family started passing out coats, socks, scarves and hats. His wife grabbed a blanket and covered a mother and her two children, huddling them in the protection of a concrete pillar.
Emergency services soon arrived and began ferrying people to the nearest rest area. The Breeds later saw one of the families, who offered them their gear back. Breed told them, “Keep it in case you have to go outside again.”
What he did, said Breed, was no different from what anyone else would do in the same situation. “Once you start working here, your training sticks with you,” he said. “I just did what I thought was right.”