CONROE – Traffic on the northbound lanes of Interstate 45 near Conroe was stopped for over an hour on Sunday, due to two accidents police believe were related.
The crashes occurred around 2:45 p.m. on the Crighton overpass. Sgt. Joe Smart with the Conroe Police Department said the first crash occurred when a vehicle topped the hill and the driver saw traffic stopped and tried to avoid a collision, swerving to the left and then back to the right. The Dodge Durango SUV landed on its on roof and struck a passenger car at some point, but it was unclear whether the impact occurred before or after the SUV rolled over.
Click the arrow to view video.
As vehicles continued to approach, suddenly seeing traffic stopped in the 65 miles per hour zone, the slammed on their brakes to avoid a collision, but some were unable to do so.
An Infiniti passenger car was able to stop without hitting another vehicle, but wound up in a collision anyway, when the van traveling behind it was rear-ended by a Greyhound bus. The van was forced into the Infinity.
Another vehicle was involved in a collision during the chain reaction of crashes, but it was not immediately clear which of the other five vehicles was struck by or struck the sixth vehicle.
None of the 49 passengers on the bus were injured, but three people who were in other vehicles were transported to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.
Smart said the bus driver was issued a citation for following too closely.
The CPD Community Oriented Response Team is continuing their investigation.
