BELOIT (WKOW) -- 27 News now has footage of the crash that led to a major pileup on the interstate last week.
Sergeant Craig Morehouse with the Wisconsin State Patrol was at a weigh station in Beloit right by the crash last Friday. He says he and a few other officers noticed whiteout conditions were moving in quickly.
"I was one of the very first responders on scene, I was probably the first three or four of the State Patrol personnel that got on scene," Sgt. Morehouse said. "A couple of us were at the scale and noticed that it was snowing hard enough that we were having problems seeing across the interstate. That visibility was greatly reduced."
Morehouse says he's "sure" the quickly changing conditions played a part in the pileup. The conditions at the weigh station, just a mile or two from the start of the crash, were completely different.
"I think there were people that were expecting a different weather condition and different road conditions," Morehouse said. "And then conditions change rapidly, they just didn't respond quickly enough to that."
Morehouse says the crash didn't change the way they responded but the number of departments that responded.
"We had more fire departments and ambulances there than I think I've ever seen in Rock County at any time before," Morehouse said. "Basically, every tow truck that was on our tow list in Rock County was called. We even had some others that came up from Rockford."
Officers with Wisconsin State Patrol say they made contact with every vehicle involved at the scene and are now asking for patience as they work to complete crash reports.
Morehouse said there were 25 separate crashes among the 200 car pileup, so they'll continue to reach out again to all the cars involved, which could take at least another week.
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