Grant County Deputies responded to a four vehicle crash on Highway 80 at the intersection of County Road A in Rural Platteville Thursday morning.
28 year old Clayton Morby of Salem was traveling east on County Highway and drove into the intersection at highway speeds, saying he didn’t see the stop sign. Morby drove right in front of a semi driven by 23 year old Ryan Oberhoffer of Dubuque. Oberhoffer t-boned Morby’s vehicle on the driver’s side and the vehicle careened into the southeast corner of the intersection, went airborne, struck a power pole approximately 20 feet up, and then landed on the banks of the Little Platte River. The power pole broke in half and the lines came down. Oberhoffer’s semi careened to the south of the intersection and jack-knifed, coming to rest against the guardrail on the east side of the road.
At the same time 66 year old Charles Johnson, of Dubuque, was driving a semi northbound and his semi got hung up in the lines and ripped the lines off of the poles on top of a car driven by 79 year old Janice Staskal of Lancaster. Staskal and her passenger nor Johnson were injured. Morby was entrapped in his vehicle and was extracted by Platteville JAWS. Oberhoffer and Morby were both transported to Southwest Health Center in Platteville for their injuries. Morby was later med-flighted to Madison.
Both Highway 80 and County Road A remained closed until approximately 2:00pm while crews recovered the vehicles and Alliant Energy crews replaced and restored the power lines and power pole. The crash remains under investigation.