- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Icy road conditions result in Wednesday morning crashes
The National Weather Service had predicted a hard freeze on Wednesday.
County Road Superintendent Steve Stangland said his road crews are on the job at 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. every day to get ahead of commuter traffic and make sure arterial and major collector roads are clear.
Such was the case on Wednesday. With the hard freeze in the forecast, county sand trucks checked the Cobb area at 3 a.m. and again at 4:30 a.m., and reported there was no ice, with road temperatures at about 36 degrees Fahrenheit, Stangland said.
“They came down off the hill and went on the rest of their routes for the rest of that morning,” said Stangland.
And then, at around 6 a.m., the hard freeze hit, he said.
“It was just one of those freak things,” Stangland added.
Between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. a number of crashes were reported in the Cobb area, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Greg Buchholz.
“You couldn’t move, even on foot, it was so icy,” Buchholz said.
Buchholz said there were at least three crashes on Bottle Rock Road, with one rollover and another vehicle sliding into that first crash, and still another vehicle high-centered on the road shoulder.
County road crews had to wait for CHP to clear the road in order to be able to put down more sand, which was difficult for CHP “because we couldn’t move, either,” said Buchholz.
A tow truck driver was able to remove all three vehicles so that officials could finish clearing and reopening the roadway, he said.
Buchholz said they then proceeded down Highway 175 to Wildcat Road, where Caltrans assisted with a road closure while another overturned vehicle was put back on its wheels. That road was then reopened at around 9:30 a.m.
Even at slow speeds, the icy conditions proved particularly difficult and dangerous, said Buchholz.
The good news: He had no reports of any injuries.
Stangland said Caltrans also was caught off guard by the freeze, with Highway 175 to Hopland experiencing issues Wednesday morning due to ice.
The CHP reported that a crash in front of Granite Construction on Highway 175 outside of Lakeport just before 7 a.m. blocked the roadway for more than an hour.
There were weather-related issues elsewhere, too: Shortly after 11 a.m. vehicles were reported off the road on Elk Mountain at Soda Creek, according to the CHP.
The National Weather Service is predicting no more hard freezes for the rest of the week, with the forecast instead calling for rain and daytime temperatures in the 40s, dipping into the mid to low 30s at night.
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