An area elementary student was killed in one of Monday’s two interstate pile ups that damaged 150 vehicles.

The fatal crash around noon Monday along I-275 in Colerain Twp. involved more than 80 vehicles, including semi-tractor trailers.

Twelve-year-old Sammy Reagan, a sixth-grader at Columbia Elementary in the Kings School District, had gotten out of the car she was riding in after it crashed, according to Hamilton County Sheriff’s officials. She was killed when a median cable snapped after being hit by cars, officials said. The Butler County Coroner’s Office ruled that her death was caused by a head injury.

She died at 12:24 p.m. at Mercy Fairfield Hospital.

Sammy was “a happy, vivacious 12-year-old who always had a smile on her face,” Kings spokeswoman Lindsay Braud said.

Sammy’s twin brother Jack and younger brother Brian were also students at Columbia Elementary. She was the daughter of Jill and Bill Reagan, of South Lebanon.

Counselors and psychologists were at the Warren County school Tuesday to meet with students and staff. Safe rooms were set up for students to have a quiet place to talk and mourn, according to school officials.

“I know this news makes all of us very sad, and that is okay. Sammy was a wonderful young lady and we will miss her,” Principal Shelley Detmer-Bogaert told students during an early morning announcement.

Students and staff filled several large poster boards Tuesday at the school with messages to Sammy.

Sammy had also been a student at South Lebanon Elementary, where she was student council president.

“Sammy just brought sunshine everywhere she went,” teacher Mike Luke said. “I’m just jealous that Jesus is hanging out with her now and not me.”

Another of Sammy’s teachers, Jessica Collett, described Sammy as “a bright light in the classroom. She loved learning and persevered at everything.”

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Local police agencies are in disbelief at the magnitude of Monday’s crashes. Asked if he’d seen anything similar before, Sgt. Clint Arnold of the Lebanon post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said, “Not of that magnitude. I’ve been here 16 years, and to have that happen on two separate major interstates — not in my career, that hasn’t happened.”

Fifty-two vehicles — including two semitrailers — crashed into each other on southbound Interstate 75 near the Ohio 122 exit in Middletown just before noon Monday, scattering wreckage across the road and backing up traffic for miles, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol. No one involved suffered life-threatening injuries, though nine people went to Atrium Medical Center for treatment of bumps and bruises, officials said.

Police and fire units from at least seven different agencies were at the scene, including Monroe and Middletown, the Lebanon and Hamilton posts of the highway patrol, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office, Turtlecreek Twp., Liberty Twp. and Joint Emergency Medical Services, Arnold said.

“We contacted just about every wrecker that we had on call,” Arnold said.

One of those was Sandy’s Towing, which towed 10 passenger cars and one tractor-trailer.

“It was some sort of feat that we were able to pull together to do that,” said Ryan Templin, a manager at Sandy’s, who said he has never seen a pile up that extensive in his 18-year career.

A brief but powerful snow squall created white-out conditions, which impaired visibility and caused the chain reaction of crashes. The weather phenomenon is similar to a pop-up rainstorm in warmer months that creates brief but intense periods of rain, according to meteorologists.

“I would compare it to a summertime rain shower where you get a heavy downpour, and it’s gone in a couple minutes,” National Weather Service forecaster Jeff Sites said. “You get isolated heavy precipitation shifts.”

Sites said Monday’s storm was likely not one system that struck in two places, but were two separate pop-up storms that occurred around the same time on I-75 and I-275.

As early as Monday afternoon, the Ohio Highway Patrol had started contacting motorists involved in the pile ups so they could file insurance claims.