Authorities respond to several crashes amid winter weather
The snowy conditions kept mid-Missouri authorities and emergency responders busy on Tuesday.
At one point, traffic was moving slowly on both sides of I-70 in Columbia. ABC 17 crews reported seeing a multiple-vehicle wreck near Rangeline that was backing up cars in the westbound lanes until the Hwy. 63 connector. Our crews reported that traffic was at a stand still around 2:30 Tuesday afternoon.
Crews were diverting westbound traffic from I-70 on to the Business Loop due to that crash. They directed traffic just west of the connector onto the Business Loop and back onto I-70 at Rangeline. Our ABC 17 News crews reported that traffic was backed up on the Business Loop due to this diversion.
ABC 17 News crews also reported seeing a vehicle that ran off the road in the eastbound lanes of I-70. They said traffic was moving slow past that incident but cleared up near the Lake of the Woods exit.
ABC 17 News talked to Corporal Scott White with the Missouri State Highway Patrol Tuesday around 2:30 p.m. Corporal White reported that troopers had 18 crashes they were responding to at the time of the call, and those calls were just in Mid-Missouri. Corporal White said the patrol had no reports of fatal crashes as of 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Just before 2:00 Tuesday afternoon, the Boone County Joint Communications website indicated that crews were dispatched to at least nine crashes in the area.
Two of those crashes happened along I-70 near mile marker 122. Our ABC 17 News crew took the attached picture of the scene of one of those crashes in the westbound lanes.
A rollover crash was also reported on I-70 Westbound at mile marker 87, near the Blackwater/Arrow Rock exit in Saline County.
The crash reportedly involved a truck that overturned into the median. ABC 17 News has received reports that no one was injured in that crash.
ABC 17 News is working to learn more about these crashes and if anyone was injured in them. We’ll keep updating this story as we learn more.
