Driver Killed in Weather Related Crash

Yes, I was working dispatch yesterday morning. Yes, I'm kinda stressed.

     An accident just north of Albion killed a Rome City man Monday morning, and left an Albion woman injured. It was one of over three dozen weather related crashes around Noble County, as freezing rain, sleet, and then snow fell over the area.

     Timothy Archbold, 51, was critically injured when the truck he was driving collided head-on with another vehicle on SR 9, just north of CR 500 N. Police say Gerry Herendeen, 61, of Albion, was northbound at about 6:25 a.m. when she crossed the center line into the path of Archbold's southbound truck. Archbold apparently swerved right in an attempt to avoid a collision, but was unable to.

     The pavement was extremely slick at the time due to falling temperatures and a coating of ice.

     The impact left Archbold with head injuries, a severe fracture to his left leg, and a possible arm fracture. He was pinned inside the Ford F-150, and had to be extricated by members of the Albion and Orange Township Fire Departments.

     Herendeen complained of head, neck, and back pain, according to the Noble County Sheriff's Department. Medivac helicopters were unable to fly due to the weather conditions, so both drivers were taken by Parkview Main Hospital in Fort Wayne. At about 1 p.m., investigators were notified that Archbold had been pronounced dead as a result of his injuries.

     Both vehicles were totaled, with the Ford receiving heavy front ear damage, and Herendeen's 2005 GMC Envoy sustaining damage to the front driver's side area. A guardrail was also smashed. SR 9 was shut down for almost an hour as wreckage was removed from the accident scene.

     Other units assisting at the scene included the Sheriff's Department, Albion Police Department, and Noble County EMS.

     Later in the morning another accident happened on SR 9 just a short distance north of the first. In the second crash the driver, Tammy Steele, was not hurt, but the impact of sliding off the roadway into a field flattered both passenger side tires of her 2000 GMC Safari.

     Forty weather related incidents were reported to the Noble County Sheriff's Department Monday, most of them in the morning. They were classified as 4 accidents involving injury, 23 property damage accidents, 9 slide-offs, and 4 disabled vehicles. About six inches of snow fell in the county during the day, but many of the accidents related to earlier rain, sleet, and freezing rain that froze to surfaces as the temperature dropped overnight.