Mountain snow blamed for two major highway pileups in Colorado

Whiteout conditions from heavy snow and high winds caused two major traffic pile-ups on Monday involving more than 50 vehicles in total in the Colorado mountains near the ski resort of Vail, authorities said. Three people were hospitalized from a 25-vehicle chain- reaction crash that closed a stretch of Interstate 70, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. "None of the injuries were reported to be serious," the statement said.