At least 6 dead as Winter Storm Blair wreaks havoc across US

• At least six people have died as Winter Storm Blair moved across the United States and continues to move eastward.
• Long-distance driver Michael Taylor decided to drive off the road in the middle of the storm, saying, “I didn’t want to kill myself or anyone else.”
• Across the country, tens of thousands of customers remain without power
  

At least six people have died as Winter Storm Blair moves across the continental United States, bringing with it dangerous snow and ice.

This deadly winter storm has impacted more than a dozen states from coast to coast since Saturday, January 4, and is currently battering parts of the East Coast.

But the western and central parts of the country have already been battered by the storm, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. Some areas have seen more than a foot of snow.

Michael Taylor, a long-haul driver from Los Angeles, was just one of many truckers who ran off the road in the middle of the storm, according to the Associated Press.

“It was too dangerous,” Taylor explained after stopping in Cincinnati. “I didn’t want to kill myself or anyone else.”

Several deaths have been reported in connection with Winter Storm Blair.

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A 61-year-old man was killed in Jackson County, Missouri, on Sunday, January 5, when a dump truck “stopped to let a passenger out of the vehicle,” who was then struck by the truck after it “began to move”. slipping on the road,” according to an accident report from Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The day before, authorities said that a A 33-year-old man died after a parked truck “went out of control down a hill” in Holt County and struck the pedestrian around 12:40 p.m. local time.

That same day, a man died after a 2019 truck flipped in “icy conditions” on the east side of U.S. Route 56 and struck a 2017 Toyota Tacoma traveling in the opposite direction. .

KHP identified the victim who died in the crash as Bernabe E. Rincon, 28, of Dodge City. The Las Vegas man driving the truck was not injured.

Two more people died after a 2002 GMC Yukon slid off Interstate 235 in Wichita, Kansas, “due to bad weather” and rolled down an embankment early Sunday. Kansas Highway Patrol he said in a separate accident report.

The victims have been identified as Nathaniel Boyd, 24, of Wichita, and Whitney Allmond, 26, of Clearwater.

The Macon County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois said a boy died after he was thrown against a rock while riding an inner tube pulled by an all-terrain vehicle, according to CBS affiliate WCIA and ABC affiliate WCIS.

Jack D. Brinkoetter, 10, was transported to Decatur Memorial Hospital, where he later died. A second child who was also in the inner tube was transported to a trauma center in Springfield with life-threatening injuries.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Tens of thousands of customers are currently without power in states including Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia and Illinois, according to PowerOutage.us.

Hundreds of flights have been canceled in several states due to winter weather, according to FlightAware.com.

The storm is still moving east, bringing “moderate to heavy snow from parts of the Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic” through Monday, Jan. 6, according to the National Weather Service. Weather Prediction Center.

Hundreds of accidents have already been reported in Maryland due to the storm, according to state police.