TOWN OF WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Interstate 81 northbound and southbound reopened at 12:30 pm Tuesday after 22 vehicles were involved in crashes in the Town of Watertown. We have several pictures included below.
The closure affected all lanes of I-81 southbound from Arsenal Street to Exit 43 (Kellogg Hill) in both directions.
All I-81 traffic was diverted into Watertown on U.S. Route 11.
State police say the southbound crash involved 7 tractor trailers and 9 other passenger vehicles.
The northbound crash involved 2 tractor trailers, 3 passenger vehicles and a work van.
“I haven’t seen anything like this in the almost 8 years I’ve been on the job,” said Trooper Jennifer Jiron.
Minor injuries were reported.
After the crash was cleaned up, we had the chance to speak with some of the first responders who were at the scene.
“All I could think was, ‘ Wow, that’s a lot of vehicles.’ There were tractor trailers everywhere. There were personal vehicles everywhere. We were just trying to figure out who needed attention when we first got there, and we went from there,” said Robbie Krone, a town of Watertown firefighter.
In addition to the size of the crash, first responders also had to battle the weather. The wind chill made temperatures in the 20s feel like they were below zero.
“The weather obviously factored into the initial cause of the pileup. Whether or not that was blowing snow, or snow on the road, I’m not quite sure of that. Either way the wind was ripping pretty good, and it was cold out there,” said Krone.
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