A series of accidents that have shut down I-35 through Salado for hours is taxing fire and police resources in this small community. Little help is in sight for Salado VFD and Salado Police as they respond to calls following vehicle accidents as far south as Prairie Dell and as far north as Belton.

The rains on March 11-12 and the kick off of Spring Break made matters much worse as drivers of 18-wheelers and passenger cars could not maneuver their way through the construction  zones on I-35 stretching from one end of Bell County to the other.

On March 11 alone, Salado VFD responded to six vehicle accidents beginning at 10:15 a.m.  with an accident in which one vehicle was facing the wrong way on the southbound lanes at mile marker 285. The vehicles were still driveable, according to SVFD, and were moved off of the highway.

Ten minutes after crews had finished at MM 285, they were called out to an accident involving two 18 wheelers at the northbound bridge over Salado Creek.

In order to reach the accident, first responders from Salado VFD had to travel down the SB access road to Thomas Arnold, cross over the interstate and head northbound on the access road and then turn down the northbound exit ramp and travel southbound on the northbound mainlanes in order to get to the accident.

“That’s been a lot of the problem,” SVD Chief Shane Berrier said late March 11, “because of the construction and lane closures, we are having a hard time getting to the wrecks.”

With concrete barriers, narrow lanes and no shoulders in the construction areas, speed limits are reduced to 60 MPH and as low as 50 MPH in the mainlane detour constructed last fall at Salado Plaza.

“There’s no room for error, for anyone,” Salado Police Chief Jack Hensley said. “I don’t know why any local would ever get on the highway in Salado during this construction.”

The northbound mainlanes were shut down for about two hours beginning at 10:34 a.m. March 11 as one of the 18 wheelers had clipped the back of another 18-wheeler, blocking both mainlanes.

This time the 18-wheeler had its right front wheel come off and was undriveable.

Traffic was stuck on the highway for more than two hours and as the back up began, traffic found its way onto the northbound access road. Even with the exit ramp south of Salado barricaded to direct traffic onto the northbound access road (instead of onto Main Street itself), heavy trucks found their way back onto Main Street by turning at Thomas Arnold Rd.

An hour after crews had cleared the 10:34 a.m. accident, they were called out to another crash, this time on the northbound lanes of I-35 at MM 285. The accident involved three vehicles, including an 18 wheeler that blocked one lane of traffic. The accident required the SVFD to use absorbent for an oil spill from the 18 wheeler. It took an hour and a half to clear the accident.

Later in the afternoon, SVFD responded to one vehicle accident on Elm Grove.

Late that night, SVFD was called out for a one-car accident in which the vehicle had spun out on the slick roads and ended up in the ditch at MM 279 southbound I-35.

Two days earlier, crews were just as busy beginning with two wrecks within minutes of each other at the MM 284. The first occurred on the northbound lanes of I-35 at 11:32 a.m. It involved moderate damage to just one vehicle.

Before that accident was cleared, a second crash, this time involving an 18-wheeler and two other vehicles with major damage. Crews arrived at 11:53 a.m. but did not finish clearing the scene until 3:25 p.m. because HAZMAT crews were called in to clean up the fuel spill.

Late that night, SVFD crews were called to an 18-wheeler accident at MM 284 in which the truck had hit several barriers in the roadway.  HAZMAT crews were called and the scene was finally cleared four hours later.

March 10 saw just one accident at MM 286 in which a driver was taking off his seat belt and hit the construction barriers and then another car.

The weekend was busy as police and fire crews were called out for accidents and oversized loads throughout the day.

An oversized load could not get under Thomas Arnold bridge and Salado police had to stop traffic to allow the 18-wheeler to back up to the nearest exit, resulting in traffic lanes being closed for half an hour at 11 a.m. March 13. At 4 p.m. that afternoon, another 18 wheeler found that it could not clear the Thomas Arnold bridge and required help.  Traffic was blocked until the truck could back up to the closest exit ramp.

That afternoon, Salado police were called out to take a crash report because DPS crews were overloaded with crashes in Troy.

Salado police were on the scene at MM 282 northbound at 3:21 p.m. and  while the Salado officer was taking the report, a white vehicle crashed into the traffic that was slowing down as three lanes reduced to two lanes. The accident was captured on the Salado police dash camera.

This video was from the dashboard camera of Salado Police, who responded to a crash at MM 282 south of Salado on Sunday.

“The driver never hit his brakes until he clipped the first car,” according to officer Josh Tulloch.