Hundreds of people were stuck in a massive traffic jam in the freezing temperature on an interstate highway in Virginia in the United States earlier this week.
Among them was a mother of two, who feared that her children would die in the cold. The woman, Vania Masaya, had run out of gas while being stranded on the I-95 highway amid snowfall for more than 20 hours on Monday, NBC reported.
Some tractor-trailers had overturned on the highway but they could not be cleared because of the snowfall, leading to the huge pile-up.
Masaya called the emergency medical services for help and pleaded with them to rescue her children.
"I was begging, 'Can you please just take my kids? You don’t need to take us, just take my kids, please,'" Masaya said on NBC News’ TODAY show. "I kept thinking they're going to die in this cold."
The woman and her children were moved to an ambulance, where they rested till the next morning.
Hundreds of other commuters spent the night inside their cars, AP reported. Local teams distributed food to the stranded people and also set up shelters where they could warm themselves.
On Tuesday morning, a tow truck cleared the snow on the road, after which some stranded commuters could exit the highway, the news agency reported. But it was only around evening that the the highway was re-opened.
Democrat Senator Tim Kaine, who was also among those stuck on the highway, narrated how a family shared food with other commuters amid their ordeal.
“I have never seen anything like it,” he said, according to AP. “I will never forget this.”
(With inputs from AP)
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