Travel proves treacherous

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ST. ALBANS –– Vermont State Police (VSP) officers were busy responding to vehicle mishaps this morning that were caused by severe winter weather.

As light snow continued falling across Vermont early today – the leftovers of a snowstorm that hit Monday – cars slid off roads and into each other.
    School was canceled across Vermont and Franklin County yesterday, but , as students returned to class today many roads and streets seemed at least equally treacherous and greasy.
    VSP responded to numerous reports of vehicles off the road in Chittenden and Franklin counties and all along Interstate 89. No significant injuries were reported as of press time today.
    “Motorists are asked to slow down and use extreme caution while driving and to allow plenty of additional time to reach their destinations,” VSP Lt. Rob Evans, commander of the St. Albans barracks, said in a media alert he issued this morning.
    “Unnecessary travel is discouraged,” Evans said.
    Police closed Route 105A in Richford early this morning after an Arnold Brothers truck out of Canada struck a railroad bridge.
    The span, located near the intersection of Routes 105 and Route 105A, which connects to Jay Road between Richford and Stevens Mills, operates as a railroad trestle for Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railroad. The line was formerly a part of Canadian Pacific Railway.
    Word out of Richford today was that the railroad company had responded to the scene, assessed the situation and saw little damage to the tracks. However, trains were not passing through until the truck was removed today. There were no injuries.
    Police reopened that section of Route 105A just after 10 a.m.
    Motorists who traveled along Route 105 today described it simply as “a sheet of ice.”
    Also this morning, a motorist slid into a VSP cruiser that had responded to a situation on South Main Street in St. Albans City. Again, no one was injured. Everyone drove away from the scene safely.
    A pair of VSP cruisers was not as lucky in Richmond in the northbound lane of I-89. Two state troopers were investigating a crash when an oncoming car struck both of their cars. No one was injured, but police said one of the cruisers is not drivable.
    Police said the driver might have been traveling too fast for the icy conditions.
    Another truck driver escaped serious injury Monday when his rig slid partially off the northbound lane of I-89, near the Georgia exit.
    The cab of the empty flatbed truck slid through the guardrail and miraculously stopped. The hood snapped off and fell into the brush below. The driver escaped, unharmed.
    Police initially closed the area to traffic and then reduced it to a single lane of travel until the truck was removed, which took several hours.
    With so much havoc on the roads, VSP had not had time to provide further information about the incident.
    Early Monday morning, a Greyhound bus filled with passengers slid off the snowy, icy, northbound lane of Interstate 87 in Westport, N.Y., near Exit 31. No one was injured.
Police there said the bus driver’s decision to pull onto the exit ramp might have saved lives, because the only other course was down a steep embankment.