MORGANTOWN — Wednesday morning was a busy one for Monongalia County emergency services as they worked to assist motorists trying to navigate the icy roads.
Monongalia Emergency Centralized Communications Agency (MECCA) Executive Director Jimmy Smith said the agency received about 61 weather-related calls Wednesday morning.
According to Smith, there were a total of 41 accidents reported to MECCA in Mon County due to early morning weather. He said they also had around 20 calls for motorist assists where cars had slid off the road due to slippery conditions.
Smith said that five of those accidents were reported with injuries, but he did not know the extent of those injuries.
Most of the calls came in around the morning rush hour, Smith said, with calls starting to come in as early as 5:30 a.m. He said the majority of the calls came around 8:30 am.
As the morning went on and people started making it to work, Smith said the road conditions got a little better. He said after the West Virginia Division of Highways was able to get the roads treated, the accident calls really slowed down.
According to Smith, the accidents were spread throughout the entire county but he said that Grafton Road, in particular, was extremely bad.
To try and reduce the number of accidents during bad weather in the future, Smith advised motorists to pay attention to the weather forecast.
“If we are having reports that we will be getting snow overnight or in the morning rush hours allow yourself a little extra time in the morning to get to work so you can slow down and keep distance between you and the vehicles in front of you,” he said. “Just give yourself a little extra time so you can slow down due to the weather conditions.”
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This RC Plum truck waits to hit the road near Gladesville 
This road to a farm off the Gladesville road late afternoon on Wednesday. 
This picturques scene on Mt Heights road early Wednesday.
