This week’s heavy snowfall is blamed for dozens, perhaps hundreds, of motor vehicle crashes across Iowa. The winter weather may also be partly to blame for the death of a northeast Iowa woman.
Black Hawk County sheriff’s officials say the woman and her 19-year-old son were in a car that got stuck in snow along US Highway 63 north of Waterloo early Wednesday morning. A deputy responded to take the stranded motorists to safety, but as the woman was being helped to the patrol car, she collapsed and went unconscious. Efforts to revive her failed.
North of Waterloo, in Floyd County, a woman who lost control of her car on an icy highway may have had her life saved by the person in a car behind her. An Iowa State Patrol trooper was following Melissa Retterath of Alta Vista when her car slid off US Highway 18 and rolled into a ditch. Retterath had to be extricated from the vehicle. She was taken to a Charles City hospital for treatment.
Among the other crashes authorities responded to was one involving five semis on Interstate 80 near West Branch.