A state trooper’s car and another vehicle were involved in a crash at the intersection of Interstates 35, 80 and 235 just northeast of Des Moines this morning. Trooper Doug Cutts says that wreck led to a long back-up of cars on the various highways which led to another accident.

Cutts says the first fender-bender created a domino effect. “We’re not sure exactly what happened there,” Cutts says. “It does involve a state patrol vehicle. The state trooper did call the crash in that he was involved in. The one north of the mix-master, traffic was backed up and that vehicle was just trying to avoid all the stopped cars. He ended up going into the ditch and he got injured in that crash.”

Cutts didn’t think the other trooper was hurt in his wreck. “He was in an unmarked patrol car and I haven’t had the chance to talk to him to find out exactly what happened in the crash,” Cutts says. “We’re still trying to get the tow trucks and get the road opened as fast as we can so nobody else gets hurt out there and we don’t have any more crashes.”

As for the second crash, the extent of the man’s injuries are still unknown. No names were released.