Trish Bennett, Editor
CIRCLEVILLE – Law enforcement agencies were kept hopping Friday morning with a series of crashes along U.S. Route 23 and surrounding areas.
The morning began about 6:04 a.m. when a vehicle pulled into the path of an oncoming semi on U.S. Route 23 at Little Walnut Rd.
According to Deputy Stephen Harger, Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office, a semi driven by Michael Clark, 56, of South Point, was traveling southbound on U.S. Route 23 when Robert Nye, 83, attempted to make a left-hand turn onto Route 23 from Little Walnut Road.
Nye turned into the path of the oncoming semi, which was fully loaded and did not have time to react, Harger said. The semi rear-ended Nye’s vehicle, causing heavy damage, and finally came to a stop about a quarter-mile from the point of impact.
Nye was transported to Berger Hospital by Harrison Township EMS, then transferred to the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Harger said. His condition was reported as stable following the crash.
Clark was not injured in the accident, Harger said.
“It definitely could have been a lot worse,” Harger said. “There was another semi behind the first one, and it had to swerve to miss Mr. Nye in the middle of the road.”
Harger said the second semi got stuck in the mud in the median and had to be pulled out by a crew from Fletcher’s Towing, which also affected the northbound flow of traffic as well as the accident scene that shut down the southbound lanes for about two hours Friday morning.
That crash, considered one of the most serious, was quickly followed by non-injury accidents at Route 23 and Hagerty Road, as well as one at Dungan Road near Route 104, according to the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office.
By 8:32 a.m., another injury crash occurred in South Bloomfield in front of Speedway, which was handled by the South Bloomfield Police Department.
That was followed about 9:30 a.m. by a non-injury crash on Route 23 at Bunker Hill, handled by the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office.
At 9:58 a.m., a semi backed into a vehicle at the Circle K gas station in South Bloomfield, and at 11:11 a.m., another crash occurred in the Ashville area. No injuries were reported in either of those incidents.
The morning wrapped up at 11:35 a.m. with an injury accident on Ashville Pike near state Route 762.
In the midst of the morning chaos, dispatchers also received a call about a person having a diabetic medical emergency while stuck in the traffic gridlock caused by the multiple crashes on U.S. Route 23. Medics were finally able to reach the patient, Harger said, and no transport was necessary.
Law enforcement agencies involved Friday morning included the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office, South Bloomfield Police, Ashville Police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
This article originally appeared on The Pickaway News Journal
