Subscribe
Community
Snow sends motorists slipping
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JOHN WHARTON
Bill Cusic and Fred Miller from Cusic's tow service work Tuesday morning to remove an overturned school bus from Hurry Road near Dynard Elementary School. The driver crawled out the bus' back door, and later was taken to a hospital.
|
E-Mail This Article
Fluffy flakes of snow quickly piled up Tuesday morning on St. Mary's roads, causing more than 50 motorist mishaps including two school bus wrecks, with one overturning after it left an elementary school.
State highways had been cleared by midday, but the conditions that kept law officers and fire and rescue volunteers scrambling that morning threatened to worsen as more precipitation and lower temperatures were forecast for that night.
St. Mary's schools closed three hours early on Tuesday after a formal snow emergency was declared by the county, and in court tardy litigants called in to report their own travel problems.
A school bus driver was injured when the vehicle tipped over going down a steep slope on Hurry Road near Chaptico, moments after she dropped off her passengers at Dynard Elementary School.
Elizabeth Chedester suffered neck and back injuries, and an ambulance crew took her to St. Mary's Hospital, according to fellow bus driver Terri Goldsmith, who had also delivered her students to the school before both drivers got back on the road coated with slippery packed snow.
"I was right behind her, and I saw her start going sideways," Goldsmith said. "I started crying."
The bus landed on its side, completely blocking the roadway. "She had to crawl through the bus and go out the emergency door," Goldsmith said.
Goldsmith has been driving school buses for 11 years, and said schools should not have been in session that morning.
"This was a very bad call," Goldsmith said as she stood on the crusty roadway. "We've had temperatures below freezing for a week. Here's your result right here."
She added, "If there had been kids on that bus, there would have been a whole lot of lawsuits."
"The driver was taken to the hospital," said Jeff Thompson, director of transportation for St. Mary's public schools, adding that she complained of some stiffness.
There was also a minor accident along Route 235 after a car collided with the rear of a bus heading to Oakville Elementary School. No injuries were reported with that accident, Thompson said.
Along with the two bus accidents, "We've had some that had said they were getting stuck," he said.
"Now most of the roads have treatment on them. It should definitely be better than it was this morning," Thompson said around noon as schools began their early dismissals.
"We knew there was going to be precipitation," he said. A winter weather advisory was issued for St. Mary's at 3:45 a.m. but the county did not declare a snow emergency plan until almost 10 a.m.
He said even as late as 5 a.m. Tuesday as school officials assessed the forecast there was still little snow predicted for the county and forecasters said morning commutes would not be affected.
Those predictions were far off as accident after accident was reported, particularly from the central section of the county north.
The storm, Thompson said, "was supposed to be north of us and it actually drifted south."
As schools worked to clear parking lots in anticipation of the buses returning to pick up students late Tuesday morning, road crews worked to clear the routes.
"Mainly, everything [so far] is in the northern end of the county," Thompson said.
Also, due to the inclement weather conditions, meals received through the Meals on Wheels program in St. Mary's County were not delivered Tuesday.
