Vehicles pile up on 65, more wrecks follow (updated)
Published 3:15 pm Friday, April 17, 2015
A multi-vehicle wreck Friday shut down Interstate 65, and then wrecks continued to pile up both on the interstate and on the detour created to bypass the wreck.
Chilton County E911 Director Dan Wright said 13 wrecks were reported on I-65 and the detour on Friday.
The original wreck, at about 1:30 p.m., involved three tractor-trailers and two passenger vehicles, just south of Exit 219.
Traffic was diverted onto U.S. Highway 31 as both lanes of I-65 southbound were closed.
There was one injury in the wreck, and it was not considered life-threatening, according to Cpl. Jess Thornton with Alabama State Troopers.
Thornton said one lane of traffic was opened at about 3:45 p.m., but as of 9 p.m. Friday, one lane remained closed.
“It’s so wet up there, we’re having some issues,” Thornton said about the effort to remove the wrecked tractor-trailers from the median.