When the snow started falling last Wednesday, Jan. 10, the cars started slipping and sliding and local police responded to plenty of accidents, a condition that continued through the weekend and into this week.
In all, Mill Creek police responded to 20 accidents from Jan. 10-15, a period that saw temperatures stay around the freezing mark and snow fall on Jan. 13 and 16.
In the first two hours of the initial storm, which hit around 3 p.m. Jan. 10, Mill Creek police responded to six accidents in a two-hour span, five of which were on the Bothell-Everett Highway. The accidents kept the two officers on duty busy during that time.
Two minor injuries were reported from the initial slate of accidents. That came when a teenage boy and a passenger were injured when the motorcycle the boy was driving went down in the snow.
Problems with ice on the roads continued into Thursday, Jan. 11, a sunny day when temperatures barely passed the freezing mark. The city had to close Mill Creek Road at the Bothell-Everett Highway shortly before 10:30 a.m. when a Community Transit bus and several cars were unable to get up the steep grade. Crews sanded the road twice during the day, but the road remained closed.
“The sand was not helping at all with the icy conditions,” said Tim Burns, Mill Creek’s public works director.
Mill Creek police responded to four accidents on Jan. 11. No injuries were reported, but icy conditions were the reported cause of all the accidents.
To help make roads more passable, the city’s road sanding contractor was brought in to sand main roads during the early morning hours of Friday, Jan. 12. Burns said Snohomish County brought a de-icer truck to the city on Jan. 12 to see if that would thaw the ice on Mill Creek Road, a street that receives little sunlight thanks to a thick canopy of trees. Other streets that crews applied de-icer on were Seattle Hill Road, Mill Creek Road, Trillium Boulevard and Village Green Drive, Burns said.
City crews joined contractors in sanding roads. Sanding crews were on streets before sunrise and sunset throughout the weekend.
A city employee was injured while sanding Seattle Hill Road shortly after 3 p.m. Jan. 12. The employee’s vehicle was struck by another vehicle and dragged. In all, five vehicles were involved in the accident. Police closed Seattle Hill Road to clean up and investigate the accident. Officers later arrested a 23-year-old man who was involved in the accident for driving with a suspended license.
Seattle Hill Road was the site of a bizarre accident earlier on Jan. 12. Shortly after noon a vehicle spun out of control and crashed through a fence in the 2800 block. The driver, a woman, fled the scene, but she later returned and police discovered the 26-year-old had an arrest warrant and was driving with a suspended license. A male passenger in the vehicle also had a restraining order against the driver.
Problems with accidents continued through the weekend. On Sunday, Jan. 14, a vehicle driven by a Kenmore man crashed into a tree in the 13800 block of Seattle Hill Road. No one was injured in that accident, but earlier that day a small child was injured in a three-car accident in the 13300 block of Bothell-Everett Highway. The child was taken to a hospital.
Police also impounded a vehicle Sunday that was abandoned by the side of Bothell-Everett Highway in the 15400 block. The vehicle was involved in an accident.
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