Orane Love, a truck driver from Houston, Texas, stands beside his truck after I-20 eastbound traffic near the Indiana exit was shut down due to multiple accidents in the area Friday.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[3/6/04]Traffic in Vicksburg and Warren County turned to chaos Friday as 33 wrecks clogged main thoroughfares, including the Mississippi River Bridge and Interstate 20, most of the day.

No serious injuries were reported.

Emergency workers and witnesses laid at least part of the blame for the day of crashes on the first two wrecks, at about 10 a.m. in the westbound and eastbound lanes of I-20 near Clay Street.

As a Vicksburg Fire Department ambulance attempted to get to the scene, traffic on the rain-soaked highway began to clog and an 18-wheel empty cattle truck careened off the interstate and plummeted about 50 feet off the highway into a ravine.

Rescue efforts there increased the backup along I-20, and the series of wrecks and fender-benders started being reported every few minutes for at least five hours.

Eleven of the day’s wrecks were reported between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. along the 4-mile stretch of I-20 through the city.

Light rain fell most of the day, complicating driving and rescue efforts.

“I understand that the weather hasn’t been that bad, but it was raining when the first wreck happened, and it went on from there,” said Lisa Buchanan, a dispatcher at the E-911 center. “This is the busiest day that I remember having in a long time.”

Twenty-seven of the wrecks were inside the city limits and 13 injuries were reported in the 33 wrecks. Ambulances and rescue units were dispatched to 12 of the wrecks.

“Thank God there were no major injuries,” Buchanan said.

Allen Maxwell, executive director of the dispatch center, said the center received nearly 500 calls between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

“We’re dispatching calls as fast as we can get them in the computer,” he said.

Maxwell said an additional dispatcher was called in to work and another was put on standby.

“As long as the roads are wet, we’re still going to be busy,” he said at 3 p.m.

Wrecks continued along the interstate, but their occurrence slowed as the workday ended and dark began to fall.

Due to the slowed and, at sometimes dead-stop traffic on the interstate, traffic on North and South Frontage roads and Washington and other local streets was busier than normal with drivers seeking alternate routes around the wreck scenes.

Wrecks in other parts of the community involved a school bus carrying no children on Boykin Road; a woman who ran her vehicle into Cingular Wireless’ glass storefront; a pickup that slid down an embankment from Washington Street near the Isle of Capri Casino; another was reported at U.S. 61 North and Culkin Road.

Police spokesman DaVon Grey would not say how many patrol and traffic units worked the wrecks, but said the normal day and traffic shifts were on duty.

Another wreck was reported at 9:45 p.m. at Porters Chapel Road. One person was injured and taken to River Region Medical Center after a car ran off the road and overturned.