Crash snarls Highway 95 traffic
|
|
March 6, 2013 |
A heavy, wet snow and temperatures right at the
freezing point made road conditions in Boundary
County treacherous today, leading to a
two-vehicle non-injury accident on Highway 95's
Peterson Hill that tied up traffic for hours.
The initial call regarding the accident came at
7:19 p.m., and it set off a chain reaction of
slide offs and semis getting stuck that
exacerbated the problem and made for a long
night for sheriff's deputies and volunteer
firefighters from the Paradise Valley Fire
Department.
On arriving on scene, the first order of
business was to dispatch an Idaho Transportation
Department plow and sand truck ... but the first
one dispatched spun out and became stuck in
building traffic. It took a second ITD truck to
get the first one moving, all while traffic was
shut down in both directions.
Once both ITD plows were moving, they went to
work plowing and sanding, eventually enabling
firefighters to begin easing traffic through one
direction at a time.
Then a tow truck called to the scene to move a
disabled vehicle involved in the accident slid
off the road and became stuck, prompting a call
for another tow truck. While waiting, a tow
truck happened to stop in passing, so the call
was belayed; but it turned out the one that
stopped wasn't big enough to dislodge the first
one, so another call was put out to get a third
one on scene.
As crews worked to get traffic moving, a trailer
was abandoned in the south bound lane, causing
yet another tie-up; it turned out the driver who
left it was towing two, and had to leave one
behind to get up the hill. He'd planned to go to
a safe place, drop off one, and return for the
second, but the recovery was put on hold to get
the piled-up traffic, including a couple of
semis that had gotten stuck and had to chain up
before they could proceed.
At 11:32 p.m. the deputy, sounding exhausted,
reported that the stuck tow truck had been
pulled out and work had started on removing the
vehicle involved in the collision.
By then, traffic was moving, with firefighters
directing traffic around the accident scene,
rather than being staged up to a mile away in
either direction so waiting traffic could be
stopped on the flats.
Deputies were finally able to clear the scene at
11:41 p.m. |
|
Questions or comments about this
letter?
Click here to e-mail! |
|
|
|
|
