Area drivers handle season's first snowfall

Linn County first-responders worked a rollover accident on West 2100 Road on Monday. Although most of the roads appeared wet after a 1-inch snowfall, there were areas that were slick. (Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)

MOUND CITY – The season’s first snowfall on Monday, Dec. 1, brought about an inch of dry white powder across Linn County, and with one exception no vehicular accidents.

Even as temperatures began to dip well below freezing, pretreatment of the roads seemed to keep the roads wet but not slick.

Linn County Undersheriff Bobby Johnson said that other than a car flipping into a ditch on 2100 Road between Iliff and Hadsall roads, there were no weather-related accidents. The accident on 2100 Road occurred on a steep, blind hill around 3 p.m. Linn County Sheriff’s deputies and Linn County fire departments responded to direct traffic around the accident, but there were apparently no serious injuries.

About the same time on U.S. Highway 169 in Miami County several slide-offs occurred south of the Paola exit as well as an accident that saw at least one pickup roll off into the median. Roads that appeared to be wet turned slick in places.

Johnson said that, in talking with law enforcement officials, numerous wrecks were occurring in Wyandotte County that afternoon. Metro area media also reported numerous accidents during that period.

“It seems like during the weather event that people seem to forget how to drive in the snow,” Johnson said.