I-55 Wrecks Keep Law Enforcement Busy

TILLATOBA –More than a dozen wrecks on I-55 between the Tillatoba exit and the county line at the Enid exit made for an almost surreal scene for Yalobusha County deputies Monday night and into Tuesday morning.

            “I have never seen anything like it,” reported Sheriff Lance Humphreys, who responded along with four deputies and EMA Director Frank Hyde as  wreck after wreck was reported.

            “The roads just looked wet and the 18-wheelers did not slow down,” the sheriff explained. This was a recipe for disaster, as he described a thin sheet of black ice encompassing both lanes and the shoulders on both the northbound and southbound lanes.

            “You could barely stand up in the road, it was so slick,” Humphreys added.

            Miraculously only minor injuries were reported in the pile-ups which included seven 18-wheeler accidents on I-55, with almost that many more regular vehicles wrecking, plus two accidents on Hwy. 7 near Coffeeville.

            “Our department helped with traffic while multiple troopers worked the accidents,” Humphreys said about the night. “Everybody was extremely busy. We didn’t get in bed until almost 4 a.m. Tuesday morning.”

            Humphreys said the northbound lanes were closed for almost two hours, just south of the Enid exit after two 18-wheelers wrecked in the same place.

            While working this accident, Humphreys said a Memphis man pulled up to authorities in the right lane, which was blocked for emergency use, after the left lane with a long line of traffic temporarily stopped to allow the wrecker to hook up.

            “He was intoxicated, we had to stop and work the DUI in the middle of everything,” Humphreys said.

            The driver, Rickey Acoff, spent the night in the Yalobusha County Jail and had his vehicle towed.

            Another 911 call came in while the north lane was still blocked, this time a female driver in a Fed-Ex truck pulling doubles told the dispatcher she was experiencing chest pains and may be having a heart attack.

            “It took us a while to find her, she was convinced she had pulled over in Yalobusha County, but she was just into Panola County,” Humphreys said. The driver was transported to Tri-Lakes Medical Center in Batesville.

            Meanwhile as the traffic finally started moving again

on the north-bound lane, Humphreys said another 18-wheeler lost control and two of the wrecker companies already in the area started arguing over which one would get the tow.

            “We had to get that straight,” Humphreys said.

            The sheriff said another deputy narrowly avoided a serious collision with an 18-wheeler, after the big truck spun out while passing the deputy.

            “I have worked in law enforcement for over 25 years. I worked for a wrecker service back in the 1990s, I have never seen anything like that,” Humphreys told the Herald.

            Humphreys said there were no wrecks south of Tillatoba, and said trooper radio traffic indicated the most dangerous portion of I-55 extended north to Sardis.