WILLISTON, Vt. -
A fresh coat of snow made for less than perfect driving conditions. You may have seen me on our morning show. I was keeping an eye on the roads from the Williston Rest Area.
All day Friday, snow continuously fell, making 89 more of a ski slope than an Interstate.
"I just stay in the right lane and do 45 or 50 and go slow, if people want to go by me, let them go," Randy Roy said, who attempted the snowy roads.
Even though the area anticipated a winter storm, traffic was steady. VTrans kept one, middle lane clear. In less than an hour, I saw four snow plows. I caught up with one of the drivers.
"We do have a night crew ready to go for tonight, we'll have our tow plows out in the two areas that we have them, and we'll have 24 hour coverage," George McCool said.
VTrans says this light, fluffy and dry snow is good for their snow plows, so, it's not a worst case scenario.
But even though this is Vermont, and we're used to this stuff, the snowy roads left several people in the ditch. Vermont State Police and tow truck drivers no doubt put in full days.
"We saw two or three other ones off the road, in the median on the way up," Roy said.
Randy Roy who commutes from Barre to Burlington witnessed a bad crash near Bolton, leaving traffic backed up for miles.
"There was a pretty good accident in the southbound lane coming down; I saw a car that was pretty badly mangled."
The slushy side roads also gave people even more trouble. So be safe on the roads or better yet, stay close to home if you can.
Again, leave early and drive slowly!
On days like these with continuous snowfall, VTrans says they just keep going round and round to keep the roads as safe as possible.
You can always call 511 to find out how the roads you're planning to travel will be.
