COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Slippery conditions started to develop late yesterday afternoon in much of Branch County because of occasional white out snow showers followed by road surfaces that turned into a sheet of ice. Very hazardous driving resulted from the on-going winter weather with a rash of accidents during the evening hours, especially on I-69 and the treacherous conditions persisted overnight with more light snow reported.
Michigan State Police said they investigated a handful of rollover accidents. One minor injury accident occurred on northbound I-69 in Kinderhook Township shortly before 11:00 p.m. when an SUV flipped over just south of Southern Road. The driver was taken by Life Care ambulance to the hospital in Coldwater to be checked out.
At about the same time, again on northbound I-69, a semi-tractor trailer slid off the expressway at Central Road in Ovid Township after running into a guardrail and rolled over in the median. The heavily damaged trailer was towed back to the weigh station area to be unloaded. That section of northbound I-69 was shut down for around 15 minutes following the crash.
According to Michigan State Police, another one of the accidents was a hit and run crash in the Village of Quincy on US 12 downtown near Maiden Lane. They say the driver left the scene and his vehicle where it was after it rolled over.
