NEWS
Messy day on city’s Beltline
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by Lynn Heidmann
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
In a span of just four hours Tuesday morning, Madison police reported more than 50 car crashes on city streets due to hazardous road conditions.
The 50-plus accidents included multiple-vehicle pile-ups on the Beltline.
Mike Hanson, public information officer for the Madison Police Department, said the abnormal number of pile-ups caused some police — including officers from the Town of Madison Police Department, Monona Police Department and Wisconsin State Patrol — to close roads.
MPD officers on crash sites said the weather had some impact on the crashes, but speeding, careless driving and following too closely also contributed to the pile-ups and fender benders.
"It's unusual in the sense that we had a high number (of crashes) on the Beltline," Hanson said. "And we had to close the Beltline so many times."
Hanson also said the crashes involved more than 103 vehicles and about half of the accidents reported Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m occurred on the Beltline.
Though none of the road mishaps were life-threatening, Hanson said some accidents did result in minor injuries. A complete injury report, he added, takes days to compile.
"There were some serious accidents," Hanson said. "Some were injury accidents; a lot were non-injury."
By Tuesday afternoon, Hanson said there was already a dramatic decrease in the number of crashes, but added motorists should practice extra caution when driving throughout the winter.
But University of Wisconsin sophomore Brad Ihrcke, who often drives on campus and in the downtown area, said other factors may have contributed to the dangerous conditions.
"It didn't seem like they plowed or salted as well as usual," Ihrcke said. "The roads weren't that bad, but it was pretty slippery."
And Angela Bluhm, a UW sophomore, agreed the effort to clean the roads was different than usual, though she said she does not regularly drive on the isthmus. On campus, Bluhm added, streets and sidewalks were hardly plowed throughout the day.
"I didn't see any snowplows, and I was wondering about that, because it was snowing all day," Bluhm said. "The traffic was a little bit slower than usual … and there were a lot of people slipping around — I don't think anything got plowed."
—Andriy Pazuniak contributed to this report.
Anonymous (February 7, 2007 @ 9:46am):
Madison has the worst roads in the state when it comes to clearing the snow. I grew up in Green Bay, and i can tell you for a fact that you would never see the roads in the condition they were yesterday, EVER. And it wasnt just yesterday that is bad. Ive been here for 8 years and ever time it snows its like the city has to shut down because the roads arent clear. its embarassing and dangerous. Someone needs to be held accountable.
Anonymous (February 7, 2007 @ 12:54pm):
Agreed with the 1st commenter. The roads and sidewalks in Madison are an embarassment but you probably aren't going to be seeing any marches to the capitol over it anytime soon.
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