SHEBOYGAN FALLS (WLUK) – Heavy fog played a role in chain-reaction crashes on State Highway 23 between Plymouth and Sheboygan that involved more than a dozen vehicles.
Around 7:30 a.m. Thursday, dispatch received numerous 911 calls reporting multiple vehicles crashing on State Highway 23 in the area of Sunset Road in the town of Sheboygan Falls.
Visibility at the time in this area was less than 1/10 mile due to heavy morning fog.
As deputies arrived, they determined there were at least seven vehicles involved in a crash at State Highway 23 east bound at Sunset Road. As deputies began to close the scene down and redirect traffic, a two-vehicle crash and eight-vehicle crash occurred west of the original scene.
Officials say it all began when a 79-year-old Sheboygan woman traveling west on STH 23 made a U-turn at Sunset Road in front of a 19-year-old Sheboygan man who was driving east on STH 23. Due to damage, both of their vehicles became disabled in the eastbound lanes of STH 23, causing a chain-reaction collision of five additional vehicles.
A 22-year-old man from Plymouth was transported to Froedtert Hospital in Waukesha with life-threatening injuries. A 37-year-old woman from Glenbeulah was transported to a Sheboygan hospital with serious injuries, and two juvenile passengers in her vehicle were taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
The 79-year-old woman will be cited for failure to yield right of way causing injury, according to authorities.
In addition to this crash, there were a separate two-vehicle crash west of the first scene with no injuries.
An eight-vehicle crash was then reported on STH 23, east of Bridgewood Road, also in Sheboygan Falls. Two people from that crash were transported with minor injuries to a Sheboygan hospital.
All roads are now reopen.
Officials say fog was the overriding factor in the first crash, and the subsequent two crashes were caused by vehicles slowing down due to the original crash.