Dancing with the Stars Tour Bus Crashes In Iowa Snowstorm Pileup

AMES, IA — A tour bus carrying the cast and crew of “Dancing with the Stars: Live! Light Up The Night” was involved in a massive snow-related pileup in Iowa Monday afternoon, forcing the cancellation of a show that night in Ames. The storm that barreled across the Midwest made Monday one of the deadliest days ever on Iowa roads.

Up to 70 cars, buses and semi-trucks were involved in the crash near Ames, Iowa, where the DWTS cast was to have performed at Iowa State University. Some members of the cast and crew sustained minor injuries, the university said in a news release. Interstate Highway 35 was closed in both the north and south lanes during the snowstorm, which brought 5 to 7 inches of snow to the state, with isolated higher amounts in some locations.

It's unclear what stars of the DWTS touring company were on the bus.

The tour includes professional dancers Keo Motsepe, Emma Slater, Artem Chigvinstev, Sharna Burgess, Gleb Savchenko, Lindsay Arnold and Alan Berstenare and troupe members Jenna Johnson, Hayley Erbert, Brandon Armstrong and Sasha Farber, according to TV Guide.

Former contestants on the bus included Frankie Muniz and Season 25 winner Jordan Fisher, both of whom tweeted about the crash.

At least seven people died in about 185 snow-related crashes across Iowa, authorities said. Another 10 people were injured. Among the fatalities was one person in the I-35 crash.

“Today was very bad,” Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Nathan Ludwig told the Des Moines Register.

Elsewhere in the Midwest, five people died and dozens were injured on Missouri roads. Snow began falling Sunday, dropping less than 2 inches, but the precipitation quickly froze as temperatures dropped from the high 30s to the single digits.

"The initial amount of light snow that melted on the roads froze as temperatures hit the freezing point," National Weather Service meteorologit Gene Hatch told The Associated Press. "The roads went from wet to icy very quickly, and once the water on the roads froze, the snow that was falling began sticking, making it even slicker."

Another 1 to 3 inches of snow is expected in Iowa Tuesday as the storm races toward the mid-Atlantic states. The National Weather Sevice has issued winter weather advisories for snow in the Plains and Midwest from eastern Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas into Illinois. Advisories also are posted from north Texas and eastern Oklahoma into the Ohio Valley.

Image via Iowa Department of Transportation