GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The consequences of two crashes on US-131 during the morning commute Wednesday could not have been more different.
One hardly affected traffic, the second one backed up traffic for a couple of miles.
The big delay was caused when a car and a truck collided in the center lanes of southbound US-131 north of 28th Street shortly after 8 a.m. The crash blocked nearly all of the highway’s three lanes, so traffic had to squeeze by using part of the right lane and the right shoulder. Traffic backed up to Wealthy Street. There were no reports of injuries.
About 30 minutes earlier, a mishap could have caused a traffic jam just as big, but it didn’t. The crash at first blocked the right two lanes of southbound US-131 just south of I-196, but emergency personnel quickly moved vehicles off the highway. Still, the ramp from eastbound I-196 to southbound US-131 was closed while the crash was cleared. That caused a slowdown on eastbound I-196. But traffic on southbound US-131 was moving at normal speeds shortly after the crash took place. Again, no injuries were reported.
