Weather causes litany of accidents

By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

Marion County motorists had their hands full with the weather this weekend, leaving first-responders working full-steam to help with accidents.

There were five accidents within 48 hours from 1 p.m. Friday to the same time Sunday, with two on US-77, one on US-50, one at Quail Creek Rd., and one at Eagle Rd. Most of the accidents were one-vehicle rollovers. Friday’s accident was the only one involving multiple vehicles.

A driver missed a turn by the roundabout on US-50 near Florence and turned around, forcing a semi to try avoiding her, said Travis Parmley, director of Emergency Medical Services. The semi’s rear-end slid on ice and hit the car.

The driver of the car was taken to St. Luke Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while the semi driver refused medical treatment.

“There’s quite a bit of history with US-50 and semis-vs.-cars, and the level of injury and damage,” Parmley said. “The sense of urgency increases when we have highway speeds and a semi involved.”

With the temporary increase in accidents, being mentally prepared and getting enough rest are very important, Parmley said.

“Obviously, our anticipation goes up, but it doesn’t change our staffing,” he said. “We just talk about impending weather.”

The other four accidents were rollovers, and the only one hospitalized was a pregnant mother who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt Sunday. She rolled the vehicle near 190th and Quail Creek Rds., and was injured when her airbag failed to deploy. She was taken to Newton Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

Because of the extent of safety features today, rolling a car often comes without major injury, Parmley said. The problem occurs when external forces damage the vehicle, like hitting a telephone pole or going into a ravine.

“If they roll into a ravine and it smashes the cab, that’s really bad and there will be injuries,” he said. “Peoples’ perception of a rollover is that there will be more injuries, but that isn’t necessarily the case.”