At Least 6 Dead as Winter Storm Blair Wreaks Havoc Across the U.S., Bringing Snow and Ice to Over a Dozen States

• At least six people have died as Winter Storm Blair made its way across the U.S. and continues to push east

• Long-haul driver Michael Taylor decided to get 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 marches across the mainland United States, bringing dangerous snow and ice along with it.

This deadly winter storm has impacted more than a dozen states from coast to coast since Saturday, Jan. 4, and is currently bearing down on portions of the East Coast.

But western and central portions of the country have already been walloped by the storm, which has left a path of death and destruction behind it. Some areas have seen more than a foot of snow.

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

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

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

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A 61-year-old man died in Jackson County, Mo., on Sunday, Jan. 5, when a dump truck “stopped to let a passenger out of the vehicle,” who was then hit by the truck after it “began to slide on the roadway,” according to a crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

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The day prior, authorities said a 33-year-old man died after a parked semi-truck “became a downhill runaway” in Holt County and hit the pedestrian around 12:40 p.m. local time.

That same day, a man died after a 2019 semi truck jackknifed amid “icy conditions” on the eastbound side of U.S. Route 56 and hit a 2017 Toyota Tacoma traveling in the opposite direction.

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

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

The victims have been identified as 24-year-old Nathaniel Boyd, of Wichita, and 26-year-old Whitney Allmond, of Clearwater.

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The Macon County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois said a child died after he was slingshotted into a boulder while riding an innertube being pulled by an all-terrain vehicle, according to CBS affiliate WCIA and ABC affiliate WCIS.

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

Tens of thousands of customers are currently without power in states like Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia and Illinois, according to PowerOutage.us.

Hundreds of flights have been canceled across several states due to the winter weather, according to FlightAware.com.

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

Hundreds of crashes have already been reported in Maryland as the storm, according to state police.

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