A Ford F250 pickup heading eastbound on Interstate 84 Wednesday at around 12:30 p.m. lost control on icy conditions and hit the center barrier and then slid off the freeway’s south shoulder rolling once and landing on its wheels in a ditch by Cousin’s Restaurant on West Sixth Street. The female driver was wearing a seat belt and was shaken, but declined to be transported to the hospital, according to police reports. The vehicle, which took out a section of fence, landed in a marsh and ended up with a little bit of marsh inside the vehicle, including water and cattails, according to the Oregon State Police. See Page A5 for more information about yesterday’s storm.
A Ford F250 pickup heading eastbound on Interstate 84 Wednesday at around 12:30 p.m. lost control on icy conditions and hit the center barrier and then slid off the freeway’s south shoulder rolling once and landing on its wheels in a ditch by Cousin’s Restaurant on West Sixth Street. The female driver was wearing a seat belt and was shaken, but declined to be transported to the hospital, according to police reports. The vehicle, which took out a section of fence, landed in a marsh and ended up with a little bit of marsh inside the vehicle, including water and cattails, according to the Oregon State Police. See Page A5 for more information about yesterday’s storm.
Far fewer accidents were reported with yesterday’s snow storm compared to the storm a week before, police officials said.
Oregon State Police Lt. Patrick Shortt said this morning, “Yesterday started off really busy but actually it wasn’t too bad after that. A few here and there but it wasn’t near what it was with the last one. I think that’s because the volume of traffic was significantly less.
“I think the media did a good job in getting out the word there was a winter storm coming,” he said. “I think the time of the week was a factor, it wasn’t just prior to the weekend.” Mid-week traffic is typically lower-volume traffic, he said. “And the fact that it stayed cold, rather than coming in and melting, that was a lot of the problem last time,” he said. “the reason they closed the gorge was so they could facilitate the snow removal, because if you don’t get the snow off the roads by the time it that’s, it’s such a mess, it’s terrible.”
The Dalles Police Chief Patrick Ashmore said, “There were several fender benders around town but nothing serious.
“Once the snow started sticking things actually calmed down. It was that first half hour where people were driving too fast for the conditions.”
Shortt said Interstate 84 in the gorge was not closed down after this snow storm, unlike the week before. “We still have packed snow on the freeways but at least the ODOT crews can pile that vs. having to completely remove it.”
Short said, “There were no serious injury accidents, mostly the slide-offs and property-type crashes.”
When the snow first started sticking on the freeway about noon, it was sticking and freezing and it was basically sheer ice, Shortt said. There wasn’t packed snow, so motorists through it was clear, he said.
“It was crazy the amount of crashes we had between Rowena and The Dalles” yesterday, he said.
But once the snow started packing and people started slowing down, authorities said things became much better.
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