More snow than meteorologists predicted blanketed Bismarck and Mandan on Friday morning, causing reduced visibility and slippery driving conditions that played a role in several accidents.

The most serious accident involved three tankers, two semis and three cars on I-94 west of Mandan, just past the Sweet Briar exit. The crash happened between 8:45 and 9 a.m., and sent five people to the hospital.

One eastbound lane of the interstate was blocked until just before noon while officials cleared the road of debris from the accident.

North Dakota Highway Patrol Trooper Doug Hoopman said the three tankers, driven by a husband and wife and their son, were traveling together when another semi passed the woman's tanker, kicking up snow. Unable to see, she slowed down, at which time her husband's tanker struck her. That tanker was then struck by his son's tanker.

The husband and wife, whose names Hoopman did not know, were not injured. The son, Joel Schrum, 22, of Dickinson, was taken to St. Alexius Medical Center, where he was treated and released. Hoopman did not know the details of Schrum's injuries.

"These tankers blocked the interstate," Hoopman said. "A semi heard the report on his CB and began slowing. At that time, another semi hit it."

Hoopman did not know the name of the first semi's driver, who was not injured.

Donald Muzzy Sr., 55, of New Town, was driving the second semi. He was extricated from the truck and taken to St. Alexius Medical Center, where Hoopman said he was being kept overnight for observation. Muzzy's injuries are not life-threatening.

North Dakota Highway Patrol Capt. Mark Bethke said that, as a result of the first two accidents, traffic began to back up on the interstate.

As traffic backed up, a silver car and the blue car behind it stopped. A white car struck the blue car and pushed it into the silver car.

Bethke said two people from the white car and one person from the blue car were taken to Medcenter One, none with life-threatening injuries. No one traveling in the silver car was injured.

He did not know the names of the people traveling in the cars.

Nancy Jo Bateman, who was on her way to work in Bismarck from New Salem, said she was stranded for a couple of hours because of the accident.

Bateman said she was behind the semis but in front of the accident involving the three cars.

She said she saw about five ambulances and several motorists helping people injured in the accidents.

Bateman said the trucks were badly damaged.

"Those trucks were not in good shape,"Bateman said. "They were not fixer-uppers."

Bethke said several other accidents happened Friday between 8:45 and 9 a.m., none of which resulted in injuries. A pickup rear-ended a car north of Bismarck on Highway 83, a semi rolled near Exit 147 west of Mandan, and a car lost control on I-94, striking the side of the Grant Marsh Bridge.

"We were busy," Bethke said. "We had a number of troopers responding to these accidents. Whenever you had that many accidents, especially involving big rigs and those kind of weather conditions, it gets pretty time consuming."

Morton County Sheriff Bob Erhardt said his department did not receive any accident reports but helped direct traffic at the Sweet Briar exit accident.

Mandan Police Chief Dennis Rohr said he only had reports of one non-injury accident in town Friday.

"I think it helped that it didn't get slick until school had already started," he said.

Bismarck Police Lt. Dan Donlin said his department had 12 accidents reported Friday morning, none with injuries.

"It was icy enough that it didn't matter how fast you were going, you were going to slide. For the most part, drivers did pretty well considering the extremely icy conditions."

The Burleigh County Sheriff's Department received reports of a few small accidents but none were severe and no injuries were reported.

Bethke said the accidents the Highway Patrol responded to were the result of the combination of snow-packed roads and reduced visibility due to snowfall and fog.

"It was a little more snow than we expected," said Jim Fors, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "We were only predicting about a half-inch or so."

About two inches of snow accumulated in the Bismarck area Friday morning. Fors predicted about a half-inch more to accumulate overnight and into this morning.

More snow is predicted today and Sunday in the northern part of the state. Fors said Bismarck should see no more than an inch of accumulated snow over this afternoon and Sunday.

The National Weather Service reported a temperature of 19 degrees Friday morning during the bulk of the snowfall. Snow tapered off around noon, and temperatures peaked at 23 degrees.

(Tribune reporter Tom Rafferty contributed to this story. Reach reporter Katie Brown at 250-8225 or katie.brown@;bismarcktribune.com.)