Flash Freeze Leads To Traffic Jams, Multiple Crashes

By Andrew Gorosko

An unexpectedly strong burst of snow on the afternoon of Friday, December 7, resulted in flash-freeze conditions on paved surfaces, making local roadways especially treacherous during the evening rush, as motorists attempted to travel home from work.

Quick icing occurred throughout town, leading to congested travel conditions on Routes 25, 34, and 302, as well as on Interstate 84, with those thoroughfares jammed with traffic during the normally busy Friday evening rush.

Town road crews working in conjunction with state road crews, were eventually able to alleviate the traffic blockages, said Public Works Director Fred Hurley.

 “There were problems everywhere…Everybody was incapacitated,” Mr Hurley said of the unpredicted thoroughness of icing on local roads.

During the period from 3:30 to 9:15 pm, town police responded to 28 motor vehicle incidents, the majority of which were minor motor vehicle accidents caused by icy road conditions. Calls for help also concerned motor vehicles disabled due to the weather, as well as abandoned vehicles. Of the 28 incidents reported to police, 16 cases were motor vehicle accidents, only one of which involved injuries.

The incidents occurred across town, especially on sloped roadways, where climbing or descending hills was complicated by the extremely slippery conditions.

Illustrating the rash of storm-related accidents in town was a multiple-vehicle collision in Sandy Hook on the sloped Walnut Tree Hill Road, near its intersection with Church Hill Road. That accident involved six vehicles, one of which was hauling a trailer.

That multiple-impact incident occurred about 4:30 pm near 10 Walnut Tree Hill Road. The accident on the sloped road involved motorist Penny Tavar, 39, of 23 Old Farm Road driving a 2005 Nissan Quest minivan; motorist Pauline Leslie, 36, of Meriden driving a 1998 Toyota 4-Runner; motorist Dennis O’Connor, 50, of 8 Old Farm Hill Road driving a 1999 Honda Odyssey minivan which was towing a trailer; motorist Marion Padgett, 46, of Shelton driving a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder; motorist Silvio Illescas, 37, of Brookfield driving a 2006 Chevrolet truck; and motorist Klever Ellescas, 41, of Ossining, N.Y., driving a 1999 Nissan Frontier pickup truck, according to police.

Police said that the six vehicles became involved in multiple collisions on the snowy/icy Walnut Tree Hill Road, near its intersection with Haley Lane.

There were no injuries in the accident, police said. Ms Tavar received an infraction ticket for traveling too fast for conditions, according to police.

Anthony DiLonardo, the public school system’s director of transportation, said that students were sent home on school buses at their normal school dismissal times because weather forecasts had not predicted the severity of the winter weather which was to occur. Those forecasts had mentioned snow flurries and a possible dusting of snow, not icing conditions, he said.

There were some delays in getting students home on buses due to the icy roads, he said. There were no accidents involving school buses, he noted.

When bus drivers encountered hazardous road conditions, they contacted the bus dispatch center and were informed to pull off the roads until the roads could be sanded and salted to make it safe for travel, he said.

“There’s never a rush when there’s that type of weather,” he said.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe remarked that it was a busy time for police. Patrol officers from both the day shift and the evening shift joined forces in responding to the many collisions across town, he said.

Besides investigating those accidents, police dealt with problems posed by the many vehicles that were abandoned by motorists in the storm, he said.

Most vehicular problems were reported between 3 and 8 pm, he said. 

The time of day that the storm occurred plus its flash-freeze aspect combined to make for the hazardous conditions that led to many accidents, he said.

“The roads just iced…The timing and the event created havoc,” he said.

“Rapidly changing environmental conditions created a slew of accidents, disabled motor vehicles, and vehicles unable to traverse the terrain,” he said.