The Marion County Sheriff’s Department reported three accidents within eight minutes Sunday morning on a stretch of State Route 161 from Route 37 to Byars Road after it turned to a sheet of ice in places.
The first wreck occurred just west of the Route 37 and 161 intersection when a car driven by a 17-year-old juvenile girl ran off the road, went through a ditch, and struck a tree in a yard in the 4300 block of State Route 161.
In the second crash, a 36-year-old Cusetta, Georgia man hit a patch of ice and left the north side of the road in the 2700 block of State Route 161. Robert Conrad’s truck struck a power pole, breaking it, before coming to a stop. While the Centralia Fire Protection District and EMS were called Conrad and all five passengers refused hospital treatment.
The sheriff’s department says the third crash occurred at Route 161 and Byars Road where a pickup ran into the roadside ditch. No one was around the vehicle and deputies are waiting for the owner to come forward.
The first crash was reported at 8:23 Sunday morning.
Sheriff’s officials called the Illinois Department of Transportation to salt the road.
