One person was killed in Tennessee and a trooper has been hospitalized in Kentucky after wintry weather caused dozens of crashes and sparked travel chaos across the Mid-South.
These developments are coming as Kentucky Governor. Andy Beshear is closing state office buildings for a second straight day Friday following the declaration of a state of emergency.
“All roads surfaces will freeze. They are and will prove extremely dangerous,” Beshear stated in a statement. “I am closing all state offices buildings with a public warning that you should stay off the roads so that roadway crews can continue plowing and removing roads.”
This Kentucky State Police vehicle was hit while it was responding to an accident in Henderson County. (Kentucky State Police)
EAST COASTBRACES FOR A POSSIBLE BOMB CYCLONE THAT MAY MAKE COMMUTE TREACHEROUS
According to Brian Schoettmer, a meteorologist at the Louisville office of the weather service, the largest snowfall in Kentucky on Thursday evening was 8 to 9 inches. It covered a large area from Elizabethtown to Bardstown, Nicholasville to Lexington. Eastern Kentucky received 6-8 inches while western Kentucky received about 3 inches.
The Kentucky State Police claims that two of its vehicles were struck during separate accidents in Henderson County, Thursday.
The first wreck involved an officer standing outside his vehicle when another driver ran into it.
“You never know what’s on the other side of the hill… always be prepared to stop,” Trooper Corey King said in a tweet.
Trooper Corey King explained that a trooper on the scene of an accident on I-69 in Kentucky was “struck by another vehicle who lost control on ice” in Thursday’s second crash involving the Kentucky State Police. (Kentucky State Police)
Five hours later, another trooper was in his vehicle tending to an incident on Interstate-69. He was “struck” by another car that lost control on the frozen ice. King said.
VIRGINIA GOV TELLS REPORTER HE’S ‘SICK AND TIRED’ OF PEOPLE ASKING WHAT WENT WRONG ON I-95
The trooper is believed have suffered a concussion. He was then taken to a local hospital.
Elsewhere in Kentucky Thursday, up to 30 cars were reported to have been involved in a chain reaction crash along the Western Kentucky Parkway near Elizabethtown, leaving drivers caught behind it stuck for hours.
Jay Greene, a witness to this major accident, said that he saw cars flying everywhere when he looked up. “I mean everywhere.”
However, no injuries were reported.
Some parts of Kentucky received more than 9 inches of snow. This is the scene from Winchester. (Courtesy Twitter/tinaren11905246)
Along the Kentucky border, authorities in Montgomery County, Tennessee, were dealing with dozens of crashes as well, including a wreck that killed one person involving a commercial vehicle on Interstate 24, Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesperson Lt. Bill Miller told the Associated Press.
WZTV reports that a truck flipped onto a Tennessee Highway Patrol vehicle on Interstate-40.
Nashville saw 6.3 inches of snowfall on Thursday, shattering the city’s previous Jan. 6 record of 4 inches that had stood since 1977, the National Weather Service said. Scott Unger is a Nashville meteorologist. He said that freezing rain and sleet covered areas around the Tennessee-Alabama State border.
This report was compiled by the Associated Press.
Source: Fox News
