MoDot watching roads after more than 55 car crashes
Officials are urging drivers to slow down and use caution in roads re-freeze overnight.
Thursday, emergency crews responded to dozens of car wrecks in Columbia and Boone County, a few of them with injuries.
The Missouri Department of Transportation said it plans to have about eight plows out Thursday night with a sand and salt mix to address any slick spots.
Emergency crews were dispatched to more than 55 car wrecks Thursday, according to the Boone Co. 911 Joint Communications Center.
The Boone County Fire Protection District responded to multiple accidents on I-70, Highway 63, Route E and Route VV, Battalion Chief Gale Blomenkamp said.
Most were slide-offs where people were just driving too fast for the road conditions, he said. But a few were injury accidents.
“If we get a hard freeze overnight and the moisture on the road re-freezes, we have the potential to see slick spots, especially on the elevated surfaces,” Blomenkamp said. “And so we would anticipate more accidents this evening. And again, people need to slow down, take their time and understand that roads are in a winter driving condition.”
MoDOT said it had about 27 snow plows out across Boone County as of about 6:30 a.m. But all roads were plowed to clear condition within a few hours.
“We had crews in last night in preparation for it,” MoDOT Supervisor Jim Williams said. “We had some watch crews out that were watching the roads and waiting for it to start to come down. But when it did we pre-treated and of course with the pavement temperatures the way they were it made things a lot easier for us and the snow melted quite quickly and it was a pretty easy snow event for us so we didn’t go through a whole lot of material.”
Jefferson City Public Works said it had a few trucks out Thursday morning clearing roads and treating slick spots as well. It said it plans to have supervisors out Thursday night monitoring the roads in case they re-freeze with the low temperatures.
You can check MoDOT road conditions here.
