On the Radar
Report blasts State Patrol response to traffic backup
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by Associated Press
Thursday, February 21, 2008
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The State Patrol responded slowly and ineffectively to a traffic backup that left thousands of motorists stranded on Interstate 39-90 in a snowstorm, according to a report released Thursday.
The patrol was slow to recognize that an emergency situation existed on Feb. 6, a delay that meant authorities missed chances to mitigate the breadth and depth of the backup, the report by Brig. Gen. Don Dunbar concluded.
“I am disappointed. The people of Wisconsin deserve better,” Dunbar said at a news conference.
Gov. Jim Doyle planned an afternoon news conference to respond to the report.
Doyle asked Dunbar, who heads the Wisconsin National Guard, to investigate the emergency response to the backup that left motorists stranded for as long as 12 hours with no food, water or gas.
The backup on a stretch of westbound Interstate 39-90 started Feb. 6 when semitrailers were unable to get up a hill because of the storm that dumped more than a foot of snow on southern Wisconsin.
The trucks blocked the freeway lanes, and at times traffic backed up from near Madison to the Illinois border some 45 miles away, Dunbar’s report said. At one point, authorities counted more than 2,000 stranded trucks and cars.
Dunbar’s 170-page report catalogs missteps by numerous state agencies but saves its harshest criticism for the patrol, which was the lead responder. The patrol did not view the backup as significant because there was no physical crash and its incident commander was slow to establish command, the report said.
“There can be no doubt that their assessment was slow and leadership ineffective,” he wrote.
But other state agencies, including the Emergency Operations Center, failed to share information with the patrol that could have allowed for a more effective response, he said.
The report found:
— The patrol repeatedly rejected suggestions to close the interstate to stop drivers from joining the backup, in part because of a mind-set that “Wisconsin does not close highways.”
— Communication with the public was “cumbersome and slow.” The Statewide Traffic Operations Center did not contact Illinois authorities until after midnight to warn drivers coming from that state about the traffic jam. A state Web site removed a warning that the interstate was “impassable” after the patrol’s command post said it was technically passable.
— Miscommunication caused the patrol to veto a plan in Rock County to have private citizens use snowmobiles to reach stranded drivers. A similar plan executed earlier in Dane County was effective.
— The Emergency Operations Center planned to close at 6 p.m. even though drivers had been stranded for hours. The center didn’t understand the situation’s severity until about 5:30 p.m. despite afternoon news reports about the backup.
The center stayed open, but a Department of Transportation worker went home at 5:15 p.m., leaving his agency without representation there.
