HIXTON, Wis. – Forty vehicles including a dozen 18-wheelers slid and smashed into a series of metal piles on the ice-slickened Interstate 94 thoroughfare across western Wisconsin. Ambulances took 20 people to hospitals in Black River Falls, 12 miles east, and Osseo, 10 miles west. There were no deaths. Two trucks erupted in flame. The series of collisions began about 5:45 a.m. at Hixton, the only exit between Black River Falls and Osseo. Traffic both directions on the divided highway was stopped and rerouted on back-country roads. Even so, traffic on the busy Chicago-to-West Coast corridor was slowed and at times backed up for miles. The State Patrol said it might be the whole day before lanes. both directions could be restored to normal.
Semi-trailer ablaze. In separate areas of the half-mile pile-up, two trucks burned up. The early morning serial crashes were at Hixton interchange of I-94 and State Highway 95.