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Multiple car pileup blocks turnpike, I-78 in Reading

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Vehicles are piled up at mile marker 286 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a mile outside Reading, Pa., on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013. Portions of both the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 78 were shut down in snowy eastern Pennsylvania Thursday after chain-reaction pileups involved dozens of vehicles on slippery roads. (AP Photo/David C. Ronk)

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Vehicles are piled up at mile marker 286 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a mile outside Reading, Pa., on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013. Portions of both the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 78 were shut down in snowy eastern Pennsylvania Thursday after chain-reaction pileups involved dozens of vehicles on slippery roads. (AP Photo/David C. Ronk)

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Vehicles are piled up at mile marker 286 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a mile outside Reading, Pa., on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013. Portions of both the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 78 were shut down in snowy eastern Pennsylvania Thursday after chain-reaction pileups involved dozens of vehicles on slippery roads. (AP Photo/David C. Ronk)

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Wreckage is seen on Interstate 78 near exit 40 in central Pennsylvania following a multiple vehicle accident Thursday. Pennsylvania State Police said multiple vehicle crashes shut down Interstate 78’s westbound lanes in Berks County between mileposts 35 and 40.

READING – Portions of highways were shut down in snowy eastern Pennsylvania after chain-reaction pileups ensnared dozens of vehicles on slippery roads.

No deaths have been reported.

Pennsylvania Turnpike officials said Thursday that 35 vehicles piled up in related accidents, blocking westbound lanes and causing a 4-mile backup about 50 miles west of Philadelphia, between the Morgantown and Reading exits in Berks County.

Turnpike spokeswoman Renee Colborn said backed-up vehicles were cleared and about 10 people were taken to hospitals.

Meanwhile, state police said 25 to 30 vehicles piled up in related crashes on Interstate 78 and shut down about 5 miles of westbound lanes in Berks County.

The lanes reopened after 3 p.m. Trooper David Beohm said 25 people were taken to hospitals, including one by helicopter, and 44 were treated at the scene.

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