NEWS
County reports 245 snow-related problems
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by Courtney Johnson
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The Dane County Sheriff's Office responded to an unusually high number of calls this weekend as a result of extreme weather in the area.
According to a press release from Elise Schaffer, public information officer for the sheriff's office, approximately 245 weather-related calls were placed regarding such incidents as crashes, slide-offs and abandoned vehicles.
About 12 of the crashes resulted in injuries, with one crash causing a fatality Friday.
"The Sheriff's Office utilized a total of nine four-wheel-drive vehicles to respond to calls over the weekend and equipped many of the patrol cars with tire cables to ensure the ability to respond in a timely manner," Schaffer said in the release.
The Madison Police Department also received a large number of calls during this weekend's blizzard conditions. More than 20 inches of snow fell in the Madison area over the course of three days.
MPD Sgt. Steve Beavers said it is difficult to determine how many of the calls involved weather-related incidents, as not all of them necessarily were responded to.
"In extreme weather like this, our threshold to what kinds of accidents we respond to goes up because the demand becomes too high," Beavers said, adding that during the height of a storm the MPD tends to only respond to those calls where there is an injury or a crash that needs to be cleaned up in order for the road to be clear for drivers.
Dangerous weather conditions also caused the Madison Metro bus system to shut down Saturday night. It did not reopen until Sunday afternoon, after the worst of the storm was over. Flights were also canceled out of the Dane County and Milwaukee airports, where workers were on 24-hour snow removal.
Due to the increased number of callers this weekend, Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney worked on patrol as well, according to the press release.
Anonymous (February 27, 2007 @ 11:22am):
Buffalo is still playing that tiny violin for you.
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