Emergency personnel respond to slew of crashes Saturday

Monday, January 10, 2022
Firefighters and police secure the scene of a four-vehicle incident in the area of Plessinger’s Hill Saturday afternoon. The incident was one of many due to freezing rain.
Banner Graphic/BRAND SELVIA

The arrival of freezing rain led to police, paramedic and fire personnel going on multiple motor vehicle incidents on Putnam County roads and Interstate 70 into the evening on Saturday.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office reported that deputies responded to 18 wrecks over the span of six hours as precipitation moved through the area and led to icy road conditions. However, agencies altogether covered 43 such incidents including injuries, property damage and slide-offs.

As such, an emergency request was made to other deputies, especially reserves, to cover the incidents as they came. Local fire and EMS crews were also called to Clay County to assist with other crashes there, one of which was fatal.

An incident early on in the tumult involved four vehicles in two separate collisions at the bottom of Plessinger’s Hill on U.S. 231 south of Greencastle. First responders were dispatched to the scene by 3 p.m. and traffic going both ways was halted.

Two motorists were transported to Putnam County Hospital by PMH Ambulance Service. One complained of a wrist injury and lower-hip pain, while the other suffered an ankle injury.

The Greencastle and Cloverdale police departments worked the scene, while the Greencastle Fire Department assisted with patient care and cleaned up debris. As it would do elsewhere, the state highway department also laid down salt on the hill.

After being closed for about two hours, the roadway was reopened after the vehicles were picked up by Curtis Wrecker.

The Fillmore, Jefferson Township and Roachdale volunteer fire departments, as well as PCSO and Stilesville firefighters, also went to a single-vehicle crash near Mount Meridian. According to a Facebook post by Jefferson Township Fire, an extrication was made and two were transported to Terre Haute Regional Hospital.

Meanwhile, Reelsville firefighters and other first responders work to stabilize a wrecked truck after a rollover near the Big Walnut bridge on U.S. 40.
Courtesy Reelsville Volunteer Fire Department

Meanwhile, the Reelsville Volunteer Fire Department, as well as PMH and firefighters from the Van Buren Volunteer Fire Department, responded to a rollover on U.S. 40 near the Big Walnut bridge. The driver sustained a broken arm and was transported to Putnam County Hospital.

Apart from the rollover and an apparatus being minorly damaged after sliding into a guardrail, Reelsville Fire Asst. Chief John McPherson said firefighters also spent about three hours pulling motorists eastbound up the incline near RVFD’s station and Cook Lumber.

Cloverdale and Reelsville volunteers also assisted with extrication in a single-vehicle fatality on the interstate just across the Putnam-Clay county line, in which three people succumbed to their injuries. One juvenile, however, was transported with non-life-threatening ones.

“It’s during these times that you realize you’re never really ‘off-duty,’” the sheriff’s office stated in a Facebook post about the compounding of crashes.

Additional incidents related to Saturday’s weather will be included in the Putnam Scanner.

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  • Thank you to every one of the responders for their service and helping us all in times of need!

    -- Posted by wilken on Tue, Jan 11, 2022, at 6:04 AM
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