• At least six people have died as winter storm Blair moved across the US and continued east
• Long-hauler Michael Taylor decided to pull off the road amid 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 are dead as Winter Storm Blair moves across the continental United States, bringing dangerous snow and ice.

This deadly winter storm has hit more than a dozen states from coast to coast since Saturday, Jan. 4, and is currently encroaching on parts of the East Coast.

But western and central parts of the country have already been hit by the storm, leaving a trail of death and destruction. In some areas there was more than 30 cm of snow.

Michael Taylor, a truck driver from Los Angeles, was just one of many truckers who went off the road amid the storm, according to the Associated Press.

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

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

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A 61-year-old man died on Sunday, January 5, in Jackson County, Missouri, when a dump truck “stopped to let a passenger out of the vehicle,” who was then struck by the truck as it “started to go out.” to get out of the vehicle”. sliding on the roadway,” a Missouri State Highway Patrol accident report states.

The day before, authorities announced that a 33-year-old man died after a parked tractor-trailer in Holt County “veered into a runaway” and struck a pedestrian around 12:40 p.m. local time.

That same day, a man died after a 2019 tractor-trailer swerved in “icy conditions” on the east side of U.S. Route 56 and hit a 2017 Toyota Tacoma traveling in the opposite direction.

The victim killed in the crash was identified by KHP as 28-year-old Bernabe E. Rincon of Dodge City. The Las Vegas man driving the tractor-trailer was not injured.

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

The victims are 24-year-old Nathaniel Boyd of Wichita and 26-year-old Whitney Allmond of Clearwater.

According to CBS affiliate WCIA and ABC affiliate WCIS, the Macon County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois said a child died after being thrown into a boulder while riding an inner tube being towed by an SUV .

Jack D. Brinkoetter, 10, was taken to Decatur Memorial Hospital, where he later died. A second boy, who was also on the 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.

According to PowerOutage.us, tens of thousands of customers are currently without power in states such as Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia and Illinois.

According to FlightAware.com, hundreds of flights have been canceled in several states due to the winter weather.

The storm is still pushing east, bringing “moderate to heavy snowfall from portions of the Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic” through Monday, Jan. 6, according to the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.

According to state police, hundreds of accidents have already been reported in Maryland during the storm.