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Ice on summit spawns pileup No one was seriously hurt in the 12-car wreck just after midnight Wednesday By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Nothing was quite as reassuring for Anna Kolesnikov than to feel the baby moving in her womb and listen to its steady heartbeat on the Doppler instrument. She was having minor contractions and being monitored Wednesday at Ashland Community Hospital after being involved in a series of accidents that stretched for a half-mile on the icy Siskiyou Summit shortly after midnight. Miraculously, there were no serious injuries in the 12-vehicle wreck, Oregon State Police reported. "It's like a bad dream," said the 22-year-old Sacramento mother, who was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon. "Every time I close my eyes, I can see those trucks hitting us." Kolesnikov was asleep in the passenger side of a 1995 Jeep driven by her husband, Timofei, an auto mechanic. The car hit black ice, spun and came to a stop near milepost 3.5 on southbound Interstate 5. "The road was very dry and then suddenly, it was icy," she said. An unsuspecting truck driver hit the ice right after them and plowed into the Jeep. "My husband and I tried to get out of the car really fast and as soon as we did, another truck came up and hit us again," Kolesnikov said. "I think if we would have been in the car, they would have hit us." The chain reaction closed the southbound freeway from 12:10 a.m. until one lane opened at 4:55 a.m. By 5:15 a.m., both lanes were open. But the freeway closed for nearly another hour at 6 a.m. while tow trucks finished the cleanup, said Jared Castle, public information officer for Oregon Department of Transportation. "It was quite a bit of a mess," said Jason Brothers, a supervisor for Dick's Wrecker Service of Medford. He was one of eight drivers who worked from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. Wednesday towing five cars - most of them totaled - and four trucks, two of them with trailers. "It was one of the worst accidents up there," Brothers said. "The ground froze really quickly." People jumping out of wrecked cars may have contributed to the chain reaction, said John Vial, ODOT district manager. "People would get stuck, jump out of their car and walk out on the road and then a truck flying over the hill would have to take evasive action to avoid hitting somebody," Vial said. One Canadian driver seemed to find the perfect solution, Brothers said. "He drove into a snow bank, got out and ran up a hill," the tow truck driver said. No one was seriously injured in the pileup. Jose Contreras, 31, and Rosaura Gamez Alcala, 27, of Montague, Calif., were treated and released from Ashland Community Hospital. So were five Contreras children - Luis, 9, Lesly, 7, Sergio, 4, Rosaura, 17 months, and Emanuel, 16 days old. Wilderville truck driver Larry Knapp, 47, started the chain reaction when his 1996 Freightliner hit black ice, according to two OSP troopers who helped at the scene. Jose Contreras was driving a 1993 Ford Explorer that hit the Freightliner. The vehicles got out of chronological order because of the chain of events, state police reported. The accident also involved a 47-year-old Victorville, Calif., man driving a 1994 Ford Ranger; a 28-year-old Mount Shasta, Calif., man driving a 1998 Toyota Tacoma; a 31-year-old Eugene woman driving a 1998 Ford Windstar; and truckers from as far away as Memphis and Georgia driving 18-wheelers, state police reported. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.