Interstate 70’s westbound lanes near the Maple Avenue off-ramp in Zanesville remained closed late Monday morning after a crash believed to involve a pedestrian struck by a semi-truck, and officials warned it could be multiple hours before the lanes reopen, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported.
The crash happened around 8 a.m. Monday near mile marker 154, according to the Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency, as reported by the Times Recorder. The agency’s description of the crash was deliberately tentative: the wreck is believed to involve a pedestrian who was struck by a semi-truck.
Muskingum County EMA Director Jeff Jadwin told the Zanesville Times Recorder it could be multiple hours before the lanes reopened. An investigation into the crash is active, the Ohio Department of Transportation informed the Times Recorder, and ODOT said it was otherwise limited in what it could release. ODOT asked drivers to use alternate routes around the closure.
Westbound traffic was backed up in the area as crews worked, and drivers crossing Muskingum County on I-70 — the state’s main east-west interstate through Zanesville — faced a lengthy detour window through the late morning.
I-70 carries cross-state truck and commuter traffic straight through Zanesville, crossing the Muskingum River just west of downtown, and a full westbound closure near Maple Avenue pushes that traffic onto local streets and state routes that are not built for interstate volume. Closures of this type — where investigators must document a scene involving a pedestrian on an open interstate — routinely last hours rather than minutes, which is consistent with the multi-hour estimate the county EMA gave the Times Recorder.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: westbound I-70 was closed at the Maple Avenue area, mile marker 154, following a crash reported around 8 a.m. that officials believe involved a pedestrian and a semi-truck, per the Muskingum County EMA via the Times Recorder. What we’re still waiting on: officials have NOT released the pedestrian’s condition, identity, age or sex, and no official source has confirmed any fatality or injury. An auto-generated dispatch-transcript page circulating details beyond that is not an official report and is not being relied on here. The Ohio State Highway Patrol has not yet issued its own statement on the crash.
What happens next: investigators will determine how the pedestrian came to be on the interstate and when the westbound lanes can reopen. Drivers should check OHGO for the current closure status before traveling through Zanesville, and this story will be updated when officials release the pedestrian’s condition or announce the reopening.