Deadly Day on Road

Two multi-vehicle accidents - one tragic, the other problematic - snarled traffic for hours Tuesday at opposite ends of the Pine Belt.

A seven-vehicle accident late Tuesday morning near Moselle on Interstate 59 left a 21-year-old Jones County man dead, while two others were transported to an area hospital.



Cpl. Todd Miller, spokesman for the Mississippi Highway Patrol, said Christopher Lee was declared dead at the scene.

To the south, controlled forest burns sent a blanket of smoke across U.S. 98, causing at least four accidents and causing traffic to be diverted around a 15-mile stretch of the highway in Forrest and Perry counties.



One accident involved three semi-tractor trailers, while another wreck was between a semi and a passenger vehicle. The latter accident involved the lone injury of the morning, and the driver of the passenger vehicle was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Miller said.


"It's been one of those days," Miller said. "We hit the ground running at about 3 a.m. today and in a 12-hour stretch, it's been non-stop. It's been a rough one."


Miller said the accident on I-59, which included six vehicles and a semi, happened at about 11:40 a.m. in the south lanes.


"About 1,500 feet, 2,000 feet ahead, traffic had bottled up, come almost to a stop (because of construction)," Miller said.


Miller said witnesses said the semi couldn't stop in time.
"There was one girl, who saw it coming in her mirror, and she wheels into the meridian to get out of the way," Miller said. "She got scraped some down one side of her vehicle, but she got out of the way."
Lee's sports utility vehicle took a direct hit in the rear from the semi.


"It hit so hard, the truck left its tag impression on that black, plastic bumper," Miller said. "The numbers, everything."


The impact sent the semi across the median and into the northbound lane. Other vehicles coming behind the semi got caught as it skewed across the highway in front of them."
The widespread accident scene was scattered with debris.

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