Slick roads cause spate of accidents

By Augie Frost and Joe Wertz

Published: January 31, 2007

Slow-moving sand trucks had traffic backed up for miles at 9 p.m. on the Turner Turnpike Wednesday between Bristow and Stroud, authorities say.

"That stretch is pretty bad, there is a layer of ice on everything,” said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Capt. Chris West said.

"If you don't have to be out there on the turnpike, you shouldn't be.”

Wednesday night's conditions there were the latest developments in a horrible day for driving, where slick roads caused hundreds of traffic accidents statewide.

Emergency officials are asking drivers to exercise caution when driving later tonight and tomorrow because road conditions are expected to remain dangerous.

The patrol reported three separate fatality accidents that happened just before 4 p.m., including two being worked by the Pawnee troop.

One accident on U.S. 270 in Pottawatomie County about a mile east of Dale killed a pedestrian on a slick bridge, West said. A truck lost control on the bridge and hit the man.

By Wednesday night, Oklahoma City firefighters had responded to more than 40 vehicle accidents, including several rollovers and car-barrier collisions, said Linda Rains, Oklahoma City Fire Department spokeswoman.

An accident involving an Oklahoma City school bus and a car sent two people to the hospital about 3 p.m., said Lara O'Leary, spokeswoman for the Emergency Medical Services Authority.

No children were hurt in the accident, O'Leary said.

A second bus wreck happened in Warr Acres about the same time when one bus slid into the back of a another, district spokesman Steve Lindley said. Nobody was hurt there.

Like on the interstates, Oklahoma City roads were reported as being are incredibly slick – especially bridges and overpasses, Rains said.

Neither the Oklahoma Highway Patrol nor the Oklahoma City police are responding to non-injury accidents. Drivers involved in accidents without injuries are asked to exchange information and continue to their destination.

Metro paramedics had responded to 105 injury accidents and 18 ice-related falls since the snow began falling, spokeswoman Lara O'Leary said.

"For a while there, we were in disaster mode,” she said. "We're going from call to call... we can't keep up with the number of accidents.”

O'Leary asks that drivers please make sure cell phones are charged and gas tanks full because ambulance response times are slow.

"People should also be very careful walking on the ice,” she said. "Many people have a false sense of security when they are walking around but it can be very dangerous.”

Oklahoma City road crews started dropping salt on the city's emergency snow routes, bridges and overpasses as road conditions worsened Wednesday.

"The extreme cold and blowing wind means the bridges freeze more quickly,” said Mike DeGiacomo, head of the city's street department. "Bridges and overpasses are our concern right now.”

DeGiacomo has his drivers working 12-hour shifts again in anticipation of another wave of precipitation late tonight or tomorrow, but five of the city's 30 snow trucks still are being serviced for damage they got during the winter storm two weeks ago.

Elsewhere, county road crews are dumping a sand and salt mix on the county's super snow routes, which were drawn up after the last winter storm because officials realized many routes did not connect with one another.

"That's our top priority,” District 1 Commissioner Jim Roth said.

Nonessential state employees in the state Capitol complex and the Oklahoma City metro area were told to leave early Wednesday because of slick roads.

Nonessential workers left at 3 p.m., according to an order issued by Public Safety Commissioner Kevin Ward. The order affected workers in Canadian, Cleveland, Lincoln, Logan, McClain, Oklahoma and Pottawatomie counties.

State employees staffing essential functions remained on duty.

Agency directors with offices outside the Oklahoma City metro area counties made their own decisions whether to close offices or cut back services.

State workers told to go home early will be paid, according to a new policy.

State employees who remained on the job, or essential workers, are compensated with additional time off under the policy, officials say.

No notice had been issued by 9 p.m. Wednesday night on whether employees are expected to report to work Thursday.