Arctic air and rain make for dangerous driving

By Leslie Wright
Free Press Staff Writer
Monday, February 24, 2003

The arrival of Arctic air created dangerous driving conditions as wet roads turned quickly to ice on Sunday afternoon.

Emergency crews scrambled to keep up with accidents into the evening as slick roads meant they too had to drive with extreme caution.

"Our officers have been pretty much tied down with accidents, most of which are minor, fender-bender kind of things," said Burlington police Lt. Tim Charland on Sunday evening. "A lot of our roads around the city are almost impassable."

Main Street, Battery Street and Colchester Avenue, all hilly streets, were particularly treacherous, Charland said.

A section of U.S. 7 in Colchester near the intersection of Severance and Blakely roads, known as Sunny Hollow, was closed for more than two hours as cars and a tractor trailer were unable to get up the steep hill, said Earl Benway, dispatcher for Colchester police.

After a morning of rain, wet roads turned quickly to ice at around 2:30 p.m. when an Arctic air mass moved into the area, said Gerald Macke, meteorological technician for the National Weather Service at the airport in South Burlington.

The temperature at the airport went from 38 degrees to 24 degrees in 30 minutes, Macke said.

Driving was difficult even for emergency vehicles. Moving along slick roads with lights on can create other traffic hazards, said Shawna Lapierre, a driver for St. Michael's Rescue.

"When they try to pull over for you they slide. Sometimes they don't stop, so you have to watch out for them," Lapierre said.
Contact Leslie Wright at 660-1841 or lwright@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com