Roanoke, VA : Local and state responders take stock of Thursday I-81 crashes on Thursday 29th September 2016

Fifteen separate accidents snarled Interstate 81 traffic around Christiansburg for hours during and after Thursday afternoon’s rain, state police reported Friday.
Town and state officials were still compiling numbers a day after the string of interstate accidents, and Virginia State Police Sgt. Richard Garletts reported that while there had been numerous injuries, he did not have a total count .
No one was killed in Thursday’s crashes, Garletts wrote in an email.
Christiansburg Rescue Chief Joe Coyle and his nephew, a volunteer with the Christiansburg Rescue Squad, got more involved in the accidents than they planned when their town SUV was struck by a sedan while on its way to the wrecks, a town news release said Friday.
Coyle and his nephew were headed to a crash in the southbound lanes. They were near mile marker 114 about 4:15 p.m. when they were hit by a sedan that had itself been struck by a tractor-trailer. Then, a second tractor-trailer ran into both the sedan and Coyle’s vehicle.
The sedan’s occupants were taken to a hospital with what seemed to be non-life-threatening injuries, the town news release said. The tractor-trailer drivers were also taken to the hospital for evaluation, the release said.
Christiansburg police called in additional officers to help deal with the crashes. The town’s rescue squad had six units on the scene, and the town’s fire department had eight units, the release said.
Garletts wrote that state police officers assigned to three counties rushed to what became 15 separate multi-vehicle crashes that affected north- and southbound traffic starting at about 3:45 p.m. The accidents involved a total of 16 tractor-trailers and 19 cars, trucks and SUVs, Garletts wrote.
Northbound I-81 was closed from 3:45 p.m. until almost 7:30 p.m., and the southbound lanes were closed from 4:50 pm. until 9:15 p.m., Garletts wrote. Traffic backed up for miles as crashes were cleared, a process that didn’t finish until about 9:30 p.m., Garletts wrote.
Garletts thanked the Christiansburg and Montgomery County police, fire and rescue units that assisted after the crashes.

Source :
Local and state responders take stock of Thursday I-81 crashes