Teen Causes Rush Hour Accident that Tied up Traffic on U.S. 93

Hundreds of vehicles were delayed between Missoula and Lolo during the rush hour on Wednesday after a teen driving too fast for conditions caused a two vehicle non-injury crash on U.S. 93 South.

Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Michael Burman described what happened.

“We had a young driver that was headed south on Highway 93 and didn’t adjust for the weather conditions and ended up losing control of their car,” began Burman. “That section of Highway 93 is between the two cement barriers, so she ended up spinning and hitting going between the two barriers. Before she came to rest, she hit another car which led to one of the main lanes being blocked and the other lane choked due to the other car, and so between the weather conditions and getting the investigation done we ended up with a large backup of traffic behind us.”

Burman said response to the careless driving crash necessarily caused the delay in traffic on the busy roadway.

“Initially the Sheriff’s Department and fire personnel responded to make sure about injuries and then they set up a scene of the accident control, because the passing lane was fully blocked and then the Highway Patrol responded and I got the investigation finished as quickly as I could and then we had to get the wreckers to the scene,” he said. “Because it was still the rush hour, we had traffic backed up all the way to Missoula, so I had to go back and escort the wreckers in to get the cars removed so that they could get through traffic.”

Burman said the initial accident occurred at about 6:10 p.m. and it was nearly two hours before normal traffic was restored between Missoula and Lolo. There were no injuries. The teen driver was cited for a traffic violation.