PHOTOS, VIDEO | Lane of I-40 E reopens hours after low-speed crashes involving 19 vehicles

CANTON, N.C. (WLOS) — The North Carolina Highway patrol says 19 cars were involved in seven separate crashes on I-40 E near Canton Saturday afternoon.

“It was just blinding rain,” Karen McMinn of Mill River said.

“It was raining so hard I couldn’t see the car in front of me,” one person at the scene told us.

McMinn said while driving east on I-40 Saturday afternoon, she could barely see cars just yards in front of her.

"I slowed down, had my lights on already but I put on my flashers because you just couldn’t see anything,” she said.

People involved in the crashes say they were driving at around 15 mph when the wreck(s) happened.

While driving around 15 mph, she saw an accident involving three or four cars a head of her, and stopped.

“I was just thinking that I need to get out of here before somebody hits me in the back end,” McMinn said. “Not much more than that came out of my head when the lady in the red car came, trying to get between the two lanes of traffic because a tractor trailer had hit her in the back end."

The red car swiped McMinn's right-side mirror, but she calls herself one of the lucky ones.

A chain reaction crash left several cars with severe front and end damage.

Multiple wreckers were called to the scene to remove the vehicles unable to drive away.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said a tow truck driver responding to the pileup.

The right lane of I 40 E near Exit 33 (Newfound Road) was closed for about four hours.

The interstate wasn't the only road affected. Secondary roads backed up for miles with drivers avoiding the crash.

McMinn said the experience could have been a lot worse.

“I was joking to my husband, it’s one of the nicest accident scenes I’ve ever been at,” McMinn said. “I didn’t get squashed, received minor damage, everyone has been nice. And it’s been longit’s been almost there hours now.”

News 13 spoke with several drivers and passengers at the scene. None of them said they were seriously injured.