One dead in I-90 accident near Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA — A chain-reaction crash killed one person Wednesday on Interstate 90.

Speed, ice and foggy conditions all factored into the crash, said Sgt. Robert Mayer, supervisor at the Mitchell South Dakota Highway Patrol station.

Around 8:30 a.m., the call came in that a semi-truck had crashed into a vehicle in the westbound lanes of I-90, five miles east of Alexandria at mile marker 348.

Mayer said a line of vehicles had approached a slow-moving snow plow from the rear. The plow was traveling 15 mph and placing salt-sand on the slippery roadway.

“It was foggy, with maybe 200 feet of visibility,” he said.

A Chevrolet pickup truck pulling a 30-foot camper rear-ended the plow, and the driver of the pickup lost control. The pickup jack-knifed on the roadway, causing the third vehicle, a Bonneville car, to lose control.

“We’re not sure if it lost control because it hit the camper or because of the crash,” Mayer said.

The Bonneville ended up sideways in the passing lane, and a Kenworth semi-truck ran into the car’s driver’s side door.

The driver of the Bonneville was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities had not released the identity of the deceased as of Wednesday afternoon, because they were notifying the victim’s family members.

Mayer said no one else involved in the crash complained of injuries, and no one was cited.

“They were all driving too close and too fast,” he said. “Once the first crash happened, then it was just a chain reaction.”

Several other vehicles went into the ditch or median trying to avoid the accident scene. Speed and slick roadways were definite factors in those accidents, but “amazingly no one was injured,” Mayer said.

The snowplow and semi-truck were driven from the scene. The pickup, camper and car were all towed.

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