Photo Courtesy, NDHP

 Jamestown, ND (KCSi-T.V. News Mar 29, 2013) — The Jamestown Rural and City Fire Departments and Stutsman County Sheriff’s Officer were called out about 9- a.m. Friday (Mar 29, 2013) to a multi-vehicle injury accident, on Highway 281 North, a half mile south of the Pelican Point turnoff.

Dense fog Friday morning reduced visibility to less than 100 yards, during the time of the accident.

A semi was making a U-turn on a turnaround causing a pileup.

Three semis and three or four cars were involved, as south-bound traffic on Highway 281 was rerouted by authorities, and then normal traffic flow was restored at 11:30 a.m.

Five occupants in the vehicles were taken to Jamestown Regional Medical Center, by Jamestown Area Ambulance Service.

Stutsman County Sheriff, Chad Kaiser, said two of the injured required extrication by the fire department from the vehicles.

Agencies responding to the accident scene included the North Dakota Highway Patrol, Stutsman County Sheriff, Jamestown Rural Fire Department, Jamestown Fire Department and Jamestown Ambulance Service.

(More information on the accident below, from  the North Dakota Highway Patrol.)

Another accident on Interstate 94 west of Jamestown near mile marker 256 was reported as a rollover.

Another accident was reported in the 10-a.m. hour at the 281 bypass involving a camper being pulled by a pickup. No injuries reported.

Motorists on Friday afternoon are still being urged to reduce speeds and use low-beam headlights when traveling through foggy conditions.

A dense fog advisory has been issued by the National Weather Service through Friday afternoon,

The forecast calls for patchy dense fog Friday evening, and a chance of light freezing rain, with sleet and snow in the forecast for Saturday afternoon, that could lead to more dangerous driving conditions.

The report from NDHP on accident Friday morning Mar 29, 2013

“Two separate crashes resulted in a 5 vehicle (2 semis, 3 passenger cars) pile-up on US Highway 52, mm 256, approximately 8 miles north of Jamestown, ND. This caused both southbound lanes to be closed for approximately 2 hours and traffic to be backed up for several miles while the scene was cleared.

The Freightliner was traveling northbound and had missed it’s turn so it attempted to make a U-turn using a designated crossover. The Freightliner attempted to pull into the far right, southbound, lane and was struck in the passenger side door area by the Mercury; this left the semi partially blocking both southbound lanes and the Mercury completely blocking the right lane.

A 2009 Chrysler minivan driven by Gail Weisenburger, New Rockford, ND, was able to stop just before the crash scene when a second semi, a 2013 Peterbuilt driven by Terrill Trimble, Ft. Collins, CO, was attempting to stop before the scene, drove by her, hit the Mercury with it’s driver side, and came to rest on the shoulder with the trailer partially blocking the right southbound lane.

Immediately, a 2006 Ford F150 driven by Brandon Mendes, McAlester, OK, rear ended the Chrysler minivan pushing it into the Mercury, and the semi on the shoulder, with the F150 still attached to the back of the minivan. Neither of the semi drivers were injured; however, all six passenger vehicle occupants were transported to the ER. (at JRMC).

This crash scene caused several additional cars to drive into the ditch alongside the scene as well as a semi pulling a 100,000lb. generator from the oil patch to drive into the median to avert further collisions. This crash remains under investigation by NDHP.”