Weather contributes to drawbridge crash, other incidents

Sat, Mar 22, 2008

A 19-year-old Spring Lake man was sent to the hospital after he lost control of his vehicle on a slippery U.S. 31 drawbridge Friday afternoon and slammed into a guardrail.

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Grand Haven Department of Public Safety says the man, whose name was not released, was going too fast for conditions. He was driving northbound in the left lane near the top of the drawbridge just before 1:45 p.m. when he lost control of his silver Buick LeSabre, veering into the center and right lanes before slamming into a guardrail on the shoulder of the road.

"We saw him spin out and hit the guardrail," said Dawn DeCan, who was driving in the right lane toward her Spring Lake home when she witnessed the crash. "I pulled over and called 911."

The man was pinned in the vehicle following the crash, and had to be removed by officers and firefighters. He was taken by ambulance to North Ottawa Community Hospital. His condition was not available.

DeCan said the man complained of head pain when she and her nephew, Gary Wilson, checked on him following the accident.

"At first he kind of just sat still," DeCan said. "Then he started moving around. You could tell he was injured. I know he was in shock."

The crash caused some traffic delays on northbound U.S. 31 as motorists worked around the accident by converging into the middle and left lanes. The right and middle lanes were closed for about 20 minutes while a wrecker hauled the Buick off the road.

Public Safety said weather certainly contributed to the crash. Around the same time, three other accidents were reported in Grand Haven, including two more on the bridge. There were only minor injuries in those crashes, police said.

Spring Lake/Ferrysburg Police and Fire departments also responded to a 1-vehicle crash involving a minivan on U.S. 31 at about 5:20 p.m. Ottawa County Central Dispatch Supervisor Amy Swords said injuries were sustained in the crash and an ambulance from North Ottawa Community Hospital was on the scene, but she said no further information was available.

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Swords said the slippery road conditions kept Central Dispatch occupied throughout the afternoon and evening. As of 6:30 p.m., Dispatch had logged 72 property damage incidents and 12 accidents with injuries — but Swords said those numbers had not increased since that time as motorists started exercising more caution on the roads.

However, Swords said Central Dispatch was busy throughout the evening with "dozens and dozens" of motorist assists for cars that slid off of the icy roads. As of 6:30 p.m., they had responded to at least 66 assists, and several more were in progress at 10 p.m.

The hazardous road conditions were part of an early spring snow storm that hit much of Michigan's southern Lower Peninsula.

The National Weather Service said a low-pressure system was expected to dump up to 12 inches of snow in parts of the region as it tracked through the Ohio Valley on Friday and early today.

Winter storm warnings were issued for all of Michigan's southern region.

On the state's west side, a three-vehicle crash caused minor injuries to some children and shut down eastbound Interstate 94 near Mattawan, Michigan State Police officials said. Police also worked to clear a jackknifed tractor-semitrailer and several slide-offs near the crash scene.

Three arriving flights and three departing flights were canceled Friday evening at Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette, which cited the airport's flight information tracker.

With heavy snow starting to fall by mid-afternoon, 12 percent of flights at Detroit Metropolitan Airport between 3 and 6 p.m. were canceled, according to Flightstats.com data cited by the Detroit Free Press.

Northwest Airlines, Metro's largest carrier, issued a weather waiver allowing those with travel plans Friday or today to change flights without penalty.

Trooper Rick Carlson of the Paw Paw post of the Michigan State Police told WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids that dozens of slide-offs and accidents were reported late Friday morning on Interstate 94 between Lake Michigan and Battle Creek.

Part of U.S. 131 just north of Kalamazoo was closed for a while Friday morning because of slick driving conditions that caused numerous traffic problems, but a Kalamazoo County dispatcher said shortly after noon that the highway had reopened.

Snow showers were forecast for Easter Sunday across parts of northern Lower Michigan and the eastern Upper Peninsula, with mostly cloudy skies elsewhere, the National Weather Service said.

Tribune reporter Beth Heinen Bell and the Associated Press contributed to this report.