Three people were taken to Salem Township Hospital following a five-vehicle crash on West Main Street in Salem early Friday night.
Salem Police say the crash began at Main and Delmar and didn’t end until an out-of-control car crashed into rocks in the medium of Cross Creek Boulevard at the West Main intersection.
Reports indicate the series of crashes began when an eastbound car on Main Street driven by 31-year-old Hailey Rowcliff of Salem Estates Drive in Salem saw traffic stopped in front of her in the driver’s lane and move to the passing lane where traffic had also stopped. Rowcliff then tried to drive between the stopped traffic and a westbound pickup truck waiting to turn onto Delmar. The impact caused the front tire of the Rowcliff vehicle to detach and the driver to lose control. She continued eastbound driving between the two eastbound lanes and ‘ping-ponging’ off the side of a vehicle in each lane. Those vehicles were driven by 45-year-old Adam Heiser of Green Bay, Wisconsin and 64-year-old Kandy Hoffman of Fairfax Street in Carlyle. Rowcliff then struck the driver’s side of a fifth vehicle flattening a back tire apparently with the exposed tire rod from the missing tire. That vehicle was driven by 45-year-old April Stevenson of North Avenue in Flora.
Rowcliff and two passengers in her car were taken to Salem Township Hospital for treatment. The passengers are identified as 24-year-old Elexous Smith and 33-year-old Jerry Summers of Salem. The other four drivers and five passengers all refused medical treatment.
Salem Police say Rowcliff will be ticketed for reckless driving, no insurance, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident, improper lane usage, and two counts of driving on bald tires.
The crash was reported at 5:43 Friday evening.
