Traffic & Transit
1 Killed, 30 Injured In Icy Crashes Across Connecticut Wednesday
Questions were raised about whether roads were pretreated, and state officials offer an explanation as to why this was the "perfect storm."
CONNECTICUT — An ice storm caused numerous problems on roadways across Connecticut on Wednesday morning. State Police said they responded to 285 motor vehicle accidents, 30 crashes that featured an injury and one fatal accident between 3 a.m. and 12 noon Wednesday.
At 6:29 a.m., a vehicle driven by Peter George Burns, 57, of Ledge Hill Road in Sterling, was traveling southbound on Interstate 395 in Plainfield near Exit 29, State Police said. Burns lost control of his vehicle, veered off the left shoulder striking a speed limit sign then crossed the highway colliding with a wire guardrail on the right shoulder and continued down an embankment where he struck several trees, police said.
Burns was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. The accident is under investigation. During Wednesday's storm, major accidents were reported in numerous towns including: Southbury, Newtown, Bridgeport, Hartford, Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Willington, Middletown, and Windsor.
Find out what's happening in Greenwichfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Social media was full of videos and pictures of cars sliding all over the place. Local meteorologists had forecast the chance for ice on Tuesday, and NBC Connecticut chief meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan questioned on social media why the roads were in such dire shape.
Did we forget to pretreat the roads? What the heck happened this morning?
— Ryan Hanrahan (@ryanhanrahan) January 5, 2022
CRAZY! This is Pleasant View Ave in Bristol. Ashley tells @NBCConnecticut, “I want people to know that it's not just wet! It's extremely icy. Since this video, there has been 3 other cars flying down our street. One car slammed into a house at the bottom.” pic.twitter.com/HzaHuUFEup
— Heidi Voight (@HeidiVoight) January 5, 2022
One injured patient transported to @YNHH from the rollover on RT 40 WB in #Hamden. Icy conditions remain. #CTtraffic @HamdenFireDept 0841 hrs pic.twitter.com/QFPjyIQ5u1
— Chief Gary Merwede (@hfdcar1) January 5, 2022
The Connecticut Department of Transportation wrote on social media that "Freezing rain is not like snow and ice ... this event was a Perfect Storm: too cold yesterday to lay down liquid pre-treatment & too windy ahead of the weather to pre-treat with hard salt. We're out there across #CT. When you see us, give us room to work."
Find out what's happening in Greenwichfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Lots of questions on pre-treating the roads coming in. Here's a quick overview: 🥶Too cold: liquid pre-treatment freezes creating dangerous conditions 🌬️Too dry: hard salt blows away by many vehicles traveling on highways 🌧️Too rainy: treatment washes away
— Connecticut Department of Transportation (@CTDOTOfficial) January 5, 2022
Hanrahan later wrote the following comments on social media.
One thing I'm thinking after this morning's disaster... we need the state DOT to stop operating in a black box. If it's true pre-treatment wouldn't work (I'm not sure that's the case) then why weren't they telling us that ahead of time? Would have been useful to communicate!
— Ryan Hanrahan (@ryanhanrahan) January 5, 2022
My forecast yesterday was for freezing drizzle and freezing rain to create problems on untreated surfaces during the morning commute. I never imagined that nothing in the state would be pre-treated!
— Ryan Hanrahan (@ryanhanrahan) January 5, 2022
We see those lines on the highways before every storm. I see towns dump truck fulls of salt on cold days ahead of storms even on my small side road. All of that happens on cold days and it makes a difference.
— Ryan Hanrahan (@ryanhanrahan) January 5, 2022
At the same time... freezing rain is always dangerous. And it wasn't just Connecticut... from New Hampshire to New Jersey things were a mess. Hopefully we can all work more collaboratively in the future to get the best message out to our viewers.
— Ryan Hanrahan (@ryanhanrahan) January 5, 2022
There are lots of people who work very hard to get things like this right - from the NWS to TV meteorologists to the hundreds of plow truck drivers I saw salting the roads on Christmas morning... away from their families. Hopefully we learn from this and do better next time.
— Ryan Hanrahan (@ryanhanrahan) January 5, 2022
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