One killed, two injured in crash with Sierra snow plow

The interstate reopened between Cisco and Soda Springs about 2 a.m. today after the crash that injured two other people in the car and sheered the snow plow off the California state truck.

The name of the 34-year-old victim from Antioch, Calif., was being withheld pending notification of family, said Steve Schnoebelen, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol at Gold Run.

She was driving the Pontiac Grand AM that collided with the state snow plow after it made a U-turn through the center divider and entered the eastbound lanes near the Nevada County border.

The weather was clear when the crash occurred about 7:25 p.m. Thursday but the road was wet and large snow banks between 12- and 15-feet high bordered the north and south roadway edges, the patrol said.

Schnoebelen said he did not know if the snow banks played a role in the crash.

"Speed of the vehicles and cause of the collision will be determined by investigation," the patrol said in a news release.

The driver of the California Transportation Department snow plow, a 23-year-old man from Marysville, Calif., was not injured.

The two passengers of the other vehicle suffered minor injuries - a 50-year-old woman from San Francisco and a 35-year-old man from Antioch.

Traffic was rerouted from the Rainbow exit about 4 miles along old U.S. Highway 40 to the Kingvale exit, with delays of about one hour, the patrol said.

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