Icy roads contribute to crashes
The Daily Inter Lake
Slick and snowy roads have caused a noticeable uptick in vehicle crashes across Flathead County.
The Kalispell Police Department responded to 21 crashes between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning. Officers worked at least another half dozen crashes Tuesday evening.
Although the majority of the crashes were minor fender-benders, one vehicle damaged a fence on Whitefish Stage Road, a second vehicle ran into a light pole on U.S. 93 North, and two other vehicles collided head-on at the intersection of Main and Idaho streets. One person suffered non-life-threatening injuries in a crash on Eighth Avenue West and Eighth Street that involved a pickup, car, and empty city bus.
Many of the crashes have occurred at intersections and were the result of drivers following too closely or traveling too fast for conditions, according to investigators. Drivers are responsible for reducing their speeds below the posted limits if poor road conditions exist.
"Weather conditions have created a layer of packed snow on the roadways, which are extremely slick," according to Kalispell police Chief Roger Nasset. "The Kalispell Police Department is encouraging drivers to slow down a little more, allow more distance between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you, and start slowing down sooner for intersections."
The Montana Highway Patrol and Flathead County Sheriff's Office responded to at least 10 crashes on Flathead County highways Tuesday afternoon and evening.
A car rolled over on U.S. 93 near Somers, while vehicles hit a utility pole on U.S. 2 in Evergreen and the guardrail on U.S. 2 east of Essex.
A crash on Montana 40 had power lines hanging over the highway, which caused drivers some delay.
The Whitefish Police Department responded to two crashes Wednesday evening, and the Columbia Falls Police Department responded to one crash. No one involved was seriously injured.
City and rural fire departments responded to many of the reported crashes.
cuzican
yeah...I've thought about the things you mention. Still don't care. Personally it doesn't matter to me live or die, whatever. The way people run red lights, cut people off, and tailgate around here, when they finally do come across somebody that has a big enough bean bag to hit them, they deserve whatever happens to them. They made the choice. And I'm happy to say that my vehicle was upgraded from a base model 99 suburban to a fully loaded 02 Yukon XL at the expense of the idiot that ran the stop light and hit us in Helena a while back.
Flovilla
Eve was naked with a sake out of innocence and lack of knowledge of sin. These people did it for sensational/voyeurism for $$. Sounds like a stripper and whore to me.
lilone
Yeah, stay off my ass! I have a baby in the car and I am driving slower due to snow on road. Consider someone other than yourselves! BACK OFF!!
JMO
Tailgating is always a problem in this area. And worse in the winter. Slow Down, use your turn signals.
Montana Eskimo
All of our implants from out of state (cough cough California) NEED to take a defensive driving course and learn what their vehicles do on snow and icy roads. Following too closely is one of the biggest problems of them all. Leave AT LEAST a 4 second gap between you and the car in front of you. If someone cuts in, back off them to 4 seconds. Having that 4 second time to react can save not only your car, but your life as well. Drive safely and courteously. :)
JMO
If you talk to law enforcement, most of the accidents are from locals. People who think they KNOW how to drive in the snow.
havnfaith777
Many vehicle owners aren't properly equipping their vehicles for winter driving, which certainly contributes to accidents. I see so many tires with very little or no tread on them. When financially strapped, people will understandably choose to put food on the table rather than buy new tires. We'll see various types of neglect as more and more people lose their income/jobs. And homelessness is reaching a crisis level in our country. God help us.
cuzican
lilone you are right to an extent. I DON'T drive nice. But it's because if you do you'll get ran over by some jackass in a 1ton pickup with a cellphone glued to his ear that thinks he's Jeff Gordon. Nope...drive nice I won't most of the time. I try to be nice....it ends up with getting cutoff, tailgated,pulled out in front of, or in my case T-boned by some retard running a stop light. Its a dog eat dog world and people here drive like idiots so if you want to get anywhere without being run over you better stand your ground on the roads.