Icy roads cause havoc

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL
Commercial-News

DANVILLE January 06, 2009 09:24 pm

— The drive for early morning commuters Tuesday was no problem. The trek for motorists later in the morning, however, was anything but easy.
Winter weather rolling through the region turned state and several city and county roadways into sheets of ice in spots, sending cars and trucks sliding off the road.
A fatal crash kicked off the barrage of accidents when a small pickup truck crashed just before 9:30 a.m. along Interstate 74 near the 213 mile marker.
Illinois State Police reported the truck was headed eastbound on I-74 when the driver lost control on the icy pavement just west of the Tilton exit. The truck crossed the median and rolled several times, coming to rest on its roof.
The cab of the truck was almost flattened. Emergency personnel covered the vehicle with a red tarp as they worked at the scene.
The driver, 42-year-old Angel Michelle McDonald, who recently relocated from Bradenton, Fla., to Bloomington, was pronounced dead at the scene by Vermilion County Coroner Peggy Johnson. She said two four-year-old girls riding in the truck’s backseat were unhurt except for a cut on one girl’s hand.
Johnson said the accident is a testament to child restraint seats.
“Those child restraint seats saved their lives,” she said, adding. “That truck was totaled.”
The girls’ names were not released. McDonald, who was wearing a seat belt, was not immediately identified Tuesday pending notification of her next of kin.
A winter weather advisory slated to end at 11 a.m. Tuesday was extended by the National Weather Service to 4 p.m. because of freezing drizzle reported along and north of I-74.
In a three-hour time frame between 7:30 and 10:30 a.m., Illinois State Police in District 10, which includes Vermilion County, reported handling 10 property damage accidents and as many as 50 vehicle slide offs.
Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Dennis Wood said by early afternoon the department had handled as least a dozen accidents as a result of the icy conditions. He said the number of accidents forced the department to call on some extra staff.
Most of the accidents involved vehicles sliding into ditches, Wood added.
Inside city limits, accidents were reported Tuesday morning near Buchanan and Commercial streets, along Southgate Drive near Alcoa and along U.S. Route 150.
That wasn’t the case in Tilton, however, where a car almost started a house fire.
The Tilton and Lynch fire protection districts were called in just before 1 p.m. Tuesday after a car left the roadway and collided with the home at 207 Myers St.
At least one person was taken to the hospital as a result of the accident. Details on the wreck were not immediately available.
The car, which ran over a fire hydrant in the yard, ended up on its side against the side of the home with blackened siding around where it was touching the home.
Slick conditions aren’t in the immediate future for the county today, with the National Weather Service calling for only a chance of snow.
Indiana State Police reported responses to several slide-offs Tuesday morning, including along Indiana Route 63 in Vermillion County, Ind.
The Vermillion County Sheriff’s Department also responded to a number of slide offs and minor injuries until around noon EST. Sheriff’s departments in Fountain County and Warren County reported no incidents as a result of the winter weather.