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17-Car Pileup Closes Part Of Saw Mill River Parkway

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A driver whose SUV flipped over onto an embankment and then slid back down into traffic started a 17-car pileup that closed a stretch of a New York parkway through the Wednesday morning rush, police said.

Westchester County police said there were several minor injuries and 14 cars had to be towed away from the scene on the Saw Mill Parkway in Mount Kisco.

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The accident occurred around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday near Exit 34.

Temperatures were well below freezing at the time but police spokesman Kieran O'Leary said the weather did not appear to be a major factor in the pileup.

"The road had been salted and sanded an hour earlier, so it wasn't a sheet of ice or anything,'' he said. "A few drivers told us the right lane may have been slippery but most of the 17 said it was the curve and the darkness that kept them from stopping in time.''

O'Leary did not know if the driver of the SUV was among those who mentioned icing.

He said that at about 6:40 a.m., the SUV's driver lost control and the vehicle flipped over and landed on an embankment.

"It slid down the embankment back onto the pavement and hit a car, and that started it,'' he said. ``It's a curve there. They had no time to react.''

The wreck closed the parkway southbound at Millwood Road and delays stretched back to Kisco Avenue, CBS2's Alex Denis reported. The southbound lanes were reopened around 9:20 a.m.

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