Slick roadways and crashes

Updated at 1:09 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Authorities are urging caution as wet roads from melting snow have led to icy conditions around Lewis County.

Responders were called to two injury collisions late last night and another two big rig wrecks since.

“The roads are very icy,” Lewis County Fire District 6 Chief Tim Kinder said this morning. “Drive very careful today, especially on hill tops and back roads.”

His crew went out about 5:45 a.m. to the 600 block of Logan Hill Road in Chehalis where a fully loaded log truck slid into a ditch, Kinder said. The driver was uninjured.

Temperatures fell to near freezing across much of the region and drivers should expect pockets of icy conditions including black ice, the National Weather Service reported this morning.

It should warm up to above freezing by around 10 o’clock this morning, the forecasters say.

Washington State Patrol Sgt. Jason Ashley said this morning county roads were slick but state routes were bare an wet. It was different last night however.

Troopers were called about 11:40 p.m. yesterday to U.S. Highway 12 at Interstate 5 where a semi truck with two trailers slid into a ditch. The driver, a 42-year-old Bellingham woman, was reportedly uninjured.

At about 11 p.m., a 23-year-old Toledo woman was hurt when the vehicle in which she was a passenger ran into a guard along state Route 505 near Henriott Road in Toledo, according to the Washington State Patrol.

The driver of the Datsun pickup, Michael A. Frank, 42, of Toledo was said to be uninjured when the truck lost control on the ice and came to rest down an embankment, according to the state patrol.

Savannah J. Williams, 23, was transported to St. John Medical Center in Longview with a broken “tibia” and “fibula” the investigating trooper reported. The truck was totaled.

Two individuals were taken to Morton General Hospital after another single-vehicle collision on U.S. Highway 12 near Morton just before 11:30 p.m.

The car was eastbound when it struck a guard rail, according to the state patrol.

A 3-year-old boy in the car was unhurt but the driver, a 41-year-old Puyallup man had an injured wrist and a 34-year-old passenger from Graham had a possible injury to her thigh, the state patrol reported.

Driving too fast on icy roads was blamed for all three wrecks.

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