Snowstorm spawns flurry of accidents

Snowstorm spawns flurry of accidents

Mar. 1, 2001

A VEHICLE sits on the ice at Narraguinnep Reservoir on Wednesday morning after the driver, who was headed east on Highway 184 at the dam, lost control on the icy paving and skidded off the road. No one was injured and the vehicle did not crash through the ice. Several other accidents, including one just half a mile away, took place during the snow flurries Wednesday.

By Aspen C. Emmett
Journal Staff Writer

Local highways and roads were virtually littered with vehicles that had spun out, run off the road or rolled over as a result of some quickly accumulating snow that hit the Four Corners in the early-morning hours Wednesday — all amazingly without injury.

At times, Colorado State Trooper David Van Bibber, the only trooper on call, was hardly able to get to one accident before another one would be called in.

"It was insane," Van Bibber said at the end of the hectic shift. "I was going north on (Highway) 666 at about 9 a.m. and it just started coming down really heavy. The roads were so icy so fast that even I got my patrol car stuck and I had to have help to get it pushed out."

Van Bibber said that the storm moved in quickly, causing poor visibility and extremely icy conditions.

Van Bibber said there were numerous roll-overs and head-ons as well as cars that simply ran off the road — so many, in fact, that he was only responding to the most serious accidents and having other motorists call in their reports later.

"We had roll-overs at mileposts 51, 52 and 53 on Highway 666," Van Bibber said. "We had several accidents no one even responded to."

Dolores County law-enforcement officers, Montezuma County sheriff’s personnel as well as hazardous-materials crews also helped respond to the overwhelming number of accidents Wednesday, Van Bibber said.

The rash of accidents did not come to a surprise to CSP Sgt. Joe Wilson.

"It was real wet and slushy snow, which is actually quite often more dangerous than if it’s just a dry, powdery snow," Wilson said. "With the slush, it can pull tires and cause that kind of a problem."

The total number of accidents in the area was unknown because several reports had yet to be taken on accidents that were called in but not responded to, Van Bibber said.

"But fortunately, on some potentially serious crashes, people and children were buckled in," he said. "The potential for injury was really great and it was avoided because people were wearing their safety belts and taking it easy."

Jenis Tucker with Southwest Memorial Hospital said no one was transported to the hospital from any of the surrounding communities as a result of the multi-accident day.

Although the weather has let up at times, motorists may still look forward to snowy road conditions into the weekend, said meteorologist Chris Cuoco of the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.

"We’ve got a big snow system over the western states and it’s going to take a day or two to move out," Cuoco said. "It looks like Friday is going to be the best day. Friday and Friday night should be only cloudy. We’re not predicting any precipitation at all."

"For the most part the best of the snow is over and we’re in a vbit of a break," he said.

The snow is expected to return for the weekend, with Saturday mostly cloudy and some scattered snow showers.

Wednesday’s snowstorm brought 1 to 2 inches in most areas and as much as 3 to 4 four inches in the higher elevations, Cuoco said.

Cloud show

CLOUDS DRIFT over the Sleeping Ute Mountain on Tuesday morning. Blustery weather has visited the Four Corners in the past few days, bringing sunshine, rain and snow in swift succession.