Icy roads led to at least two multi-vehicle pileups Monday morning in Oklahoma City as roadways around the city froze over.
A 15-car pileup happened at about 7:30 a.m. CST on Interstate 40 at Mustang Road, KOKH reported. A second, 25-vehicle pileup was reported about an hour later on Oklahoma City Boulevard, near I-40 and S. Agnew Avenue, KOKH said.
The second pileup involved an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper, the station reported. A KOKH reporter for the TV station said people were being taken from the crash on stretchers. KOCO reported that five people were injured, one critically.
The Oklahoma City Police Department said it stopped responding to non-injury accidents in the city because so many crashes were being reported.
The Oklahoma City Fire Department said it had responded to 43 vehicle accidents between 6 and 8:45 a.m.
“It’s just, it’s treacherous. I’ve been listening to our firefighters on these calls, on the radio traffic, and they just said, ‘This is a sheet of ice. We have eight vehicles involved. We’ve got 12 vehicles involved in this one.’ It’s just one after another,” Battalion Chief Benny Fulkerson, with the Oklahoma City Fire Department, told KFOR.Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers said at least one person was killed in the pileup and several others were injured, according to KWTV. The crash involved three passenger vehicles and four semitractor trailers, including a cattle truck, KWTV reported. Most of the cattle survived.
KOCO also reported that EMSA Oklahoma had responded to 84 car collisions in and around Tulsa as of 9 a.m.
Officials in Kansas and Missouri also reported icy roads and accidents in those states.
School districts throughout the Midwest canceled classes or turned to online instruction.
Freezing drizzle broke out early Monday morning in parts of Oklahoma, southern Kansas and southwest Missouri, including the Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Wichita, Kansas, metro areas. Up to one-quarter inch of ice accumulation was reported near Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
The National Weather Service issued winter weather advisories for these areas through late Monday afternoon.
“This is another example illustrating that wintry precipitation doesn’t have to be heavy or doesn’t have to be accompanied by a major storm to produce widespread travel problems,” said weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Erdman.