Snow driving safety on one of state's most dangerous roadways; county adjusts snow plow regulations

Thursday, December 7, 2017
Abigail Hantke | WEAU

ALTOONA, Wis. (WEAU)- Before we see the accumulation of some snow, local officials are warning drivers to be safe, especially along one of the most dangerous stretches of roadways in the state.

Between January 1st to June 30th of last year, 94 crashes were reported along what police call one of the most dangerous areas of roadway.

"When the first snow flies, there's going to be problems," said Altoona Police Chief Jesse James. James recalls responding to an 11 car crash on one of the ramps, January 12th, 2016. Five cars were damaged and two had to be towed away.

The two-mile stretch of Highway 53 bypass between the Highway 12-Clairemont interchange to North Crossing is "accident-prone

"One thing we're finding is that one accident usually results in four more because people usually aren't paying attention," said Jon Johnson, the Eau Claire County highway commissioner.

Police said many of the crashes are because people are driving too fast or too close. Now why would that make it any different from any other road? James said it's because of the way the road is laid out.

"The identifying features we have in this area are the amount of hills we have in this stretch, as well as the turning corridors that exist on the bypass," James said.

Because the area is well-known for traffic concerns, this year the highway department is trying out something new by pre-treating the North Crossing and the 53 bypass with salt brine, known as polymer.

"So both roads have been treated with a salt brine at about 40 gallons per lane mile," Johnson said. "It doesn't seem like much, but we have a tanker trunk where we can pretreat a lot of the higher traffic to help give us a little bit of an edge before the snow starts to stick."

While crews work to keep the roads salted before the snow sets in, both are reminding folks who travel this area to drive safe!

With about 40,000 cars driving on the road a day, crashes have never been worse, and saving your insurance from taking a hit is something everyone could benefit from.

"Statistically, we've seen an increase in property damage, we've seen an increase in injuries out there and we've seen an increase in the hit and runs," James said. "Drive safe and seatbelts save lives."

With snow approaching, the county highway department has changed a few regulations to help offset winter costs of overtime and salt usage. The county will be concentrating more on roads of accumulation and icy spots.

Johnson said the change will be, "where there's snow falling and we're not going to have county trucks out there with bare roads type of analysis. If it's icy we'll be out there. If there's accumulation once we get a little bit above an inch, which shouldn't be a problem to drive on in the wintertime. So slow down. We won't have bare roadways all the time. Passable roadways are the goal."

Roads with high-volume traffic will continue to be serviced as regular, but in more rural areas, they'll wait for more accumulation as they say driving on a little bit above an inch shouldn't be a problem for drivers.

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