SHARONVILLE -- Robert Bross' idea of a traffic nightmare is an overturned concrete truck blocking the highway.
That's what he got Wednesday.
Three cars, a van, a flatbed truck and a concrete-mixer truck collided Wednesday on eastbound Interstate 275 during morning rush hour.
Mr. Bross, a general manager for SmartRoute, which subcontracts for the Tristate's traffic management system ARTIMIS, and the others at ARTIMIS got busy looking for alternate routes to alleviate the ensuing traffic snarl.
Sharonville police were uncertain what caused the 7:50 a.m. crash but suspect the flatbed and the concrete mixer met side-by-side near the U.S. 42 exit. That started a chain reaction, police Lt. Joe Witzman said.
Six people were taken to hospitals.
Authorities blocked a two-mile section of I-275 for more than five hours. Traffic was redirected onto U.S. 42 and to Reed Hartman Highway to access I-71.
At ARTIMIS, the crash was spotted by the agency's traffic plane. ARTIMIS -- the Advanced Regional Transportation Interactive Management and Information System -- is a $37 million system to monitor traffic and relay, via highway message boards, the Internet and phone trees, news of tie-ups and problems.
After notifying police, ARTIMIS workers immediately began typing warnings on the large message boards along area interstates to alert motorists.
They called other authorities and a rest stop on southbound I-75 near Tylersville Road so workers could alert truckers and offer alternatives, ARTIMIS supervisor Mary McConnell said. About two hours into the crash, things inside the ARTIMIS center at 508 W. Third St. in downtown Cincinnati settled down a bit.
Two large video screens flanked by TV monitors contained images of the accident as well as traffic along I-75, I-71, and other roadways. Leaning over a control panel, Ms. McConnell manipulated a joystick, and the scene on one monitor shifted from the accident to the miles of backed-up traffic along eastbound I-275.
"We contact everybody -- the police, the radio and television stations, Jet Port (Express)," Ms. McConnell said. "It was immediately on our Web site and on our audio system."
The impact of Wednesday's accident was wide-reaching, as many motorists sought to escape the I-275 delays. ARTIMIS officials could literally see motorists looking to the large message boards.
"We can only make suggestions to people. "We can't control whether they take our advice," said Scott Evans, an ARTIMIS program manager.
