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Ice causes 21-vehicle crash in Oklahoma City

Highway officials asked Christmas revelers to stay off the roads Tuesday as freezing rain and sleet pelted Oklahoma and caused a 21-vehicle pileup that injured several people and snarled other motorists on a pair of cross-country interstates.

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Modified: December 25, 2012 at 9:50 am | Published: December 25, 2012 Comment on this article

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The pileup included 10 separate crashes with 21 vehicles, including three semis, she said. Several people were taken to hospitals, but Randolph didn't have details on their injuries or conditions.

The highway patrol shut down the interstate near its junction with I-35 for more than five hours and diverted traffic while troopers worked to clear the accident. Interstate 40 also was closed near Clinton in western Oklahoma because of overturned vehicles there and in eastbound lanes about 10 miles east of Shawnee because of a jackknifed tractor-trailer.

All of Interstate 40, which bisects the state from east to west, was slick because rain was freezing as soon as it hit the pavement, Randolph said. Traffic was light because most people had already reached their holiday destinations, "but the ones that are out there are having trouble staying on the road," she said.

"We're really discouraging travel," she added. "If you don't have to get out, don't."

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