Slick pavement leads to I-70 crashes Monday night

Firefighters tend to the scene of a multi-vehicle crash involving a jackknifed semi on Interstate 70 Monday evening.

Courtesy Cloverdale Township Volunteer Fire Department

CLOVERDALE — With freezing drizzle leading to black ice on the roadways, first responders worked two serious crashes on Interstate 70 Monday evening.

The Cloverdale Township and Reelsville volunteer fire departments, Indiana State Police and Putnam County EMS first went to an eastbound incident that occurred at about 8:15 p.m. near the 31-mile marker. A semi was jackknifed into a car, while another semi slid into the median along with a pickup truck.

Cloverdale Township Fire Chief Kerry Shepherd stated that the driver of the crashed semi was transported by EMS, while the driver of the adjoining car was taken to Cloverdale to wait on a ride. The two other drivers were cleared at the scene.

No identifying information on the passenger was available as of Tuesday morning.

Firefighters meanwhile checked the semi and only found motor oil leaking, though the cab came loose from the frame. The roadway was down to one lane until Curtis Wrecker arrived to remove the semi.

Firefighters conclude an extrication at another crash later on the interstate involving a vehicle that crashed into a tree.

Courtesy Cloverdale Township Volunteer Fire Department

Cloverdale Township Fire then left this scene and responded to the other incident, which occurred near the 40-mile marker westbound at about 9:15 p.m. This one involved a vehicle, driven by Reba Rhoten, 20, Marion, that lost control and impacted a tree off the roadway.

Arriving again with EMS and the state police, firefighters found the driver was uninjured, but that the passenger was entrapped and badly hurt. With the vehicle pinned against the tree, the top, doors, center console, dash and driver’s seat were cut to free the passenger in an operation that took an hour.

“The firefighters did a great job with this very difficult extrication,” Shepherd said about the latter incident. Two sets of extrication tools were used at the same time on clearing both sides of the vehicle.

The passenger, identifying information for whom was also not available, was alert and transported to an Indianapolis hospital for treatment, with their injuries being determined as not life-threatening. Seniour’s Towing retrieved the vehicle.

Shepherd noted that the Cloverdale firefighters were with both scenes for more than three hours and returned to their station at about 11:30 p.m.