"The Morning Call Inc., Copyright 2002"
IT WAS NO HOLIDAY ON ICE FOR VALLEY MOTORISTS
The Morning Call
It was the Lehigh Valley's version of ''Automobiles on Ice'' last night as hundreds of cars turned every which way but straight on snow- and ice-covered roads, police and highway officials said.
With the season's first snow came a slew of minor accidents on city streets and country roads, which started to glaze over with thin sheets of ice shortly after the snow began to fall around 9 p.m.
''The snow is melting as the cars go over it, and then it freezes,'' said Allentown police officer Tom Litak. ''That's the problem.''
Litak said roads throughout the city were covered with ice, causing scores of accidents and control problems for nearly everyone on the road. In hilly areas, patrol cars were unable to reach the scenes of minor accidents. Officers had to walk to several accidents.
Charles Giannetta, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service at the A-B-E Airport, said temperatures below freezing during the week have hardened the ground, making accumulation easier. At midnight, the temperature stood at 29 degrees. Just over an inch of snow had fallen at the airport.
By this morning,
Giannetta said, we should have about 2 1/2 inches of snow. Flurries are expected to end by midmorning, and skies should remain cloudy for the rest of today. Temperatures should hover around 35 degrees. The snow, he said, was brought to the Lehigh Valley by a large area of low pressure that swept in from the Great Lakes region.
''Our patrols are responding to accidents all over the place, '' said a state trooper in the Bethlehem barracks. ''We're advising people to stay home.'' Within just two hours, 11 accidents were reported to the barracks, none of them serious.
While the police filled out accident reports and helped stranded motorists, city and state workers covered the roads with hundreds of tons of salt and cinder.
''We've called our day shift out,'' said Carl Glase, foreman for the Allentown street maintenance department. ''These are severe conditions right now.''
Glase said 11 trucks, each carrying 10 tons of salt, were out covering the roads last night. About 10:45 p.m., the trucks came back to the garage for another load. Drivers reported they were having trouble getting up some of the city's hills.
''The temperature is pretty low right now,'' Glase said about 11 last night. 'It's at the turning point, just below freezing, and that's when things get bad.''
George Cole, an assistant county manager for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which is responsible for maintaining the Valley's major roads, said Routes 22 and 309 were slippery and that there ''were some accidents out there.''
PennDOT dispatched 15 trucks last night, and about 20 workers were out working the roads. ''We've started to salt and cinder the roads, and we'll just have to sit back and wait and see what happens,'' said Cole. ''But if people learned to slow down, all these accidents probably wouldn't happen.''
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"WEATHER BY GIANNETTA"