From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on April 16, 1998:
"98-car pileup shuts down I-70 in O'Fallon, Mo.
No fatalities, but 37 people are treated for injuries
Police are calling it Missouri's biggest crash in history and possibly it's luckiest.
Wednesday's 98-car pileup blocked eastbound Interstate 70 for half a mile in O'Fallon, Mo., and resulted in 37 people being taken to four hospitals in St. Charles County. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening.
The cars didn't fare as well. By 8:30 a.m., smashed vehicles were turned every direction on the road; some were on top of each other and sandwiched between vehicles. Others had slit onto the concrete median or swerved off the road. Glass, metal and skid marks marred the roadway.
"This is something you expect on the roadways in California. This is something you never see here," said Sgt. Terry St. Clair with the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Now accident reconstructionists and officers from the highway patrol and O'Fallon police are readying 98 individual crash reports, a process that may take a week, St. Clair said.
Meanwhile, details began emerging about the cause of the rush-hour demolition derby.
It had been raining, and the sun had just come out, shining in the faces of drivers heading east on I-70. Vehicles were kicking up a lot of mist and causing glare."