Area storm causes chain-reaction crashes

Ohio State Highway Patrol information

The Van Wert Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a series of weather related crashes that occurred Saturday.

The weather changed abruptly Saturday morning, leading to several hours of hazardous weather. Snow started to fall, as well as an increase in wind speed, which created areas of severe low visibility and blowing snow. This led to a string of chain-reaction crashes in Van Wert and Paulding counties.

Starting at approximately 10:03 a.m., the Van Wert Post began receiving calls of multiple vehicle crashes for both Van Wert and Paulding counties. Over the next five hours, calls of property damage and injury crashes were reported. A total of 13 crash investigations were initiated, with 39 persons involved.  There were 11 occupants treated and released at area hospitals with no significant injury being reported.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol urges motorists to reduce speed in response to changing weather conditions and give adequate amount of following distance to allow for increased reaction time due to low visibility conditions. In addition, if involved in a crash where visibility is diminished, always clear the roadway and move vehicles to the roadside.

Assisting at the crash scenes were several local EMS and fire departments, including Delphos, Grover Hill, Middle Point, Ohio City, and Scott. Delpha and Knippen’s wrecker services of Delphos, Gideon’s Towing and Recovery of Paulding and 2As and Parker-Mace of Van Wert assisted the Patrol with scene cleanup.