Chippewa County -- A highway has been repaired and reopened after a crash and a near miss.
The pavement buckled because of the heat Sunday, creating a ramp that led to an incredible scene which was caught on camera. It happened on Highway 29 near County T in Chippewa County.
"From the overpass we could see the big divots, but we'd stopped to take a picture of it because we'd seen a bunch of cars going over slowly, and scraping the underside of their cars. They were kind of lining up, checking the damage," said Theresa Reich from Eau Claire. Reich and her brother-in-law had stopped on that overpass to take a picture of Highway 29. What Theresa didn't realize was that as she tried to take a still picture of the pavement, the camera in her phone was already rolling... and it captured video of an SUV that went up the ramp, crossed the other lane of traffic, narrowly missed another vehicle... before coming to rest off the road.
Theresa said after she saw the SUV go airborne, she started to call 911. "By the time I had exited picture mode... people were already walking out and dialing. We were pretty amazed that none of the oncoming traffic hit them too. Everyone seemed like they made it out ok... they were walking out of their car," said Reich.
There were two passengers in the SUV. Both were taken to the hospital after complaining of neck and back pain.
After that accident, crews went out to fix the pavement on Sunday. However, there were more problems Monday, so that part of the highway had to be shut down. The sheriff's office says there was a near miss between two semis along 29 on Monday. The pavement was repaired Monday afternoon and the road was reopened that night.
WQOQ