Snow Causes Treacherous Driving In Southern Wis.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Snow contributed to numerous pileups in southern Wisconsin on Sunday, including a fatal rollover.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office described conditions on the interstates as "extremely slippery and dangerous" with multiple pileups, including a fatal rollover on Interstate 43 eastbound at Highway 100.
Multiple accidents were reported on Interstates 94 and 894, as well as I-39 and I-90. The Wisconsin State Patrol hadn't fully counted all of the accidents by Sunday afternoon.
Authorities recommended no travel in Racine County, where a multiple-car pileup closed I-94 eastbound on Sunday afternoon. An Associated Press reporter saw multiple clusters of pileups — plus other accidents and cars off the road — along several miles of the closed highway. The westbound lane remained open.
Emily Maccari, 23, of Kenosha, was stuck in traffic on that interstate just before noon.
"Every five minutes, we'll move maybe like ten feet," she told the Racine Journal Times from the road. "I called my mom at 11 a.m. and that was about a half a mile ago."
To the west, all southbound lanes on I-39 near Janesville were blocked by multiple crashes for nearly two hours before reopening. Accidents led to full or partial closures on several other highways as well.
Not much snow had fallen by the time the crashes started happening. The National Weather Service reported 1.6 inches in Racine around 1 p.m. and 1.2 inches at the Milwaukee airport around noon. Temperatures were in the mid-20s.
Up to 5 inches of snow was forecast across much of southern Wisconsin by Monday, Winds off Lake Michigan could bring heavier snowfalls of 6 inches or more in northern Ozaukee and Sheboygan counties, the weather service said.
