Accidents minutes apart block I-70 traffic

Two accidents that occurred within 10 minutes of each other Monday on Interstate 70 blocked traffic in the westbound lanes for about an hour.

At 5:21 p.m., a Columbia girl rear-ended a car driven by 19-year-old MU sophomore Margaret Rallo on westbound I-70, Columbia police Capt. Stephen Monticelli said. The car driven by the juvenile, who cannot be identified because of her age, slid into the rear of Rallo’s car when Rallo slowed down for congested traffic.

The juvenile was transported to a hospital, which Monticelli would not identify, where she was treated and released. An unidentified passenger in the vehicle with the juvenile was transported to the hospital by another motorist. Rallo and her passenger, Columbia College sophomore Kat Norman, 19, were not injured.

The girl who rear-ended Rallo was issued a summons for colliding with another motor vehicle. Although she was not issued any other summonses, Monticelli said she was driving too fast for the wet conditions at the time.

Just 10 minutes after the first accident, a vehicle driven by Amelia Jones, 18, of Columbia, rear-ended a vehicle driven by Matthew Handy, 24, of Milford, Ill., when Handy slowed to avoid the cars from the first accident that were still in the road, Monticelli said. Handy’s car was pushed into a third vehicle, driven by Angela Madrid, 26, of Columbia, when Jones rear-ended him.

Jones was transported to a hospital, which Monticelli declined to name, and was treated for her injuries.

Jones was issued a summons for colliding with another vehicle.