Morning Accidents Plague Mother Lode

Black ice and slick roadways caused a surge in fender benders and a few serious crashes Wednesday morning.

A Black Oak Casino van overturned just before 10am on Tuolumne Road, blocking a lane of the road in front of Summerville High School. The California Highway Patrol reported there were subjects trapped inside the van following the wreck. There´s still no word on what caused the wreck.

Two vehicles collided westbound on Highway 108 at Lime Kiln Road, just past the Washington Street exit. One of the vehicles had gone over an embankment and had to be brought back up using cables.

The car that had gone over the embankment had obviously deployed airbags as it was pulled back up to the roadway to be towed from the scene.

There´s still no word on injuries.

As many as 8 vehicles reportedly pulled off the road in the Highway 4 area east of Copperopolis, but there were two separate traffic collisions.

In the Jamestown area, a solo vehicle flipped over on Rawhide Road near the Sheriff´s Posse Grounds.

A vehicle is reported into a ditch at Black Oak Road and Tuolumne Road.

And at Algerine Road and Jacksonville, another solo vehicle wreck was reported.

At least ten accidents had been reported by the CHP by late Wednesday morning.

“Slow down, give yourself extra time. Just remember, just because the road doesn´t appear wet, that´s not necessarily the criteria for when black ice forms,” CHP Officer Bryan Duquesnel said Wednesday.

Black ice remains on the roadway on several streets and highways in the Mother Lode. Duquesnel says drivers should slow down when approaching shady stretches of the road where ice often remains late in the day.

Tuolumne County Law enforcement also had a flurry of fender benders to deal with this morning. Ice should decrease as temperatures rise this afternoon.