Toledo woman dies in crash on icy I-75

A car is wedged under a tractor-trailer rig after a pileup on southbound I-75. The driver was not seriously injured.

Wintry road conditions yesterday contributed to two injury accidents on I-75 near the Ohio-Michigan state line that killed a Toledo woman and blocked traffic.

Jennifer D Arcangelo, 24, 4356 Berwick Ave., was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. in St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, about half an hour after one of the accidents, according to the Lucas County coroner s office.

She was driving a car north on I-75, approaching the I-280 overpass, when she lost control of the vehicle on the slippery road. The car struck the median wall and then was struck by a tractor-trailer rig in the passenger side, police said. The two vehicles traveled more than 100 yards before stopping on the overpass.

About a half-hour earlier and 21/2 miles north of the fatal crash, a car skidded on what police described as “a sheer sheet of ice” on southbound I-75 near Alexis Road, causing a chain-reaction pileup, which involved a dozen vehicles, including tractor-trailer rigs. Two people suffered injuries that were not considered serious, police said.

Monroe County sheriff s deputies were asked by Ohio authorities to slow down traffic on southbound I-75 at 5:24 p.m., and, by 5:44 p.m., deputies were asked to close the road. Traffic was routed off at the Summit Street exit. It was reopened at 7 p.m.

The mix of snow and sleet contributed to slick roads throughout the region.

A number of accidents were reported between 2 and 4:30 p.m., troopers with the Lima post of the Ohio Highway Patrol said.