Several wrecks along Interstate 26 temporarily shut down the westbound lanes Wednesday morning.
According to the NCDOT, the road was first closed 3.5 miles west of Exit 59 (Holbert Cove Road) due to the crash. The wreck was cleared, and the road reopened around 9:10 a.m.
That wreck involved a total of five cars, including a tractor trailer, according to Sgt. Matthew Strawbridge of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. The chain-reaction crash was all the result of one car hydroplaning on the Green River Bridge, he said.
"One person was injured and transported to UNC Health Pardee in Hendersonville. The car that hydroplaned struck the guardrail of the bridge and bounced right in front of the oncoming tractor trailer," Strawbridge said. "Then the other cars just ran into each other."
Strawbridge said speed was a factor and that it was an ongoing investigation.
"People just need to slow down. With the fog and the rain this morning, people need to decrease their speed," he said.
A new alert from the NCDOT just before 9 a.m. said two westbound lanes were closed in Polk County at Mile Marker 58 due to a crash. By 10:15 a.m., one lane was closed and not expected to reopen until 1 p.m.
An alert from the city of Saluda said an accident in the westbound lanes was redirecting traffic via U.S. Highway 176 through Saluda.
STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOSWrecks shut down I-26 west near Henderson/Polk County line
