Icy Michigan roads lead to 50-car pile-up, 'hundreds and hundreds' of crashes

A small amount of snow caused a large number of traffic accidents in a Michigan county Friday — including a pile-up that involved as many a 50 vehicles, according to authorities.

A portion of U.S. Highway 131 in western Michigan was shut down after slick conditions caused a chain-reaction crash, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation. Kent County Under-sheriff Michelle Young said that between 40 and 50 cars were scattered across the highway in the wake of the accident.

Other crashes across the county weren't as large, but Officer Russ Esther, with the Kent County Sheriff's Office, said the dispatch department had received about 1,000 calls about accidents throughout the day. He said some of the calls were likely about the same accident, but that the icy roads had led to "hundreds and hundreds" of accidents.

No one had been seriously injured, Esther told NBC News.

The county hadn't even gotten much snow, Esther said. "The sidewalks aren't even covered. I can still see the grass," he said. "But the snow came down hard, and the vehicles running over the snow melted it and then froze it."

Click through to see how winter weather is shaping up across the U.S.:

More from NBC News:
'Devil's drug': Flakka is driving Florida insane
China accuses U.S. of 'serious military provocation' over B-52 flight
Obama meets with families of San Bernardino attack victims