Icy Roads Cause Deaths On Kentucky Roads

Bad weather – especially snow, ice and sleet – is a contributing factor in many of the 200,000 automobile accidents in Kentucky each year.

Snow, sleet and slush decrease a vehicle’s maneuverability, limit visibility and increase the crash risk, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Icy conditions apparently played a role in a pair of recent Kentucky car wrecks – both of which left drivers dead.

The first accident occurred March 6 in Letcher County. A woman was traveling northbound on Highway 119N in Whitesburg around 8 p.m., when she skidded on the icy road surface, lost control of her car and crashed into another vehicle, according to one news account.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The other driver was taken to the hospital for treatment.

A second weather-related wreck happened the next morning on Highway 50 near the Laurel-Pulaski County line. A 1996 Jeep Cherokee SUV went out of control on an ice-covered bridge, crossed the center line and struck a tractor trailer, according to press reports. The 53-year-old driver of the SUV was thrown from the SUV and killed.

Each year, 24 percent of weather-related vehicle crashes occur on snowy, slushy or icy pavement. Fifteen percent happen during snowfall or sleet.

More than 1,300 people are killed and approximately 116,800 people are injured in winter-weather crashes annually.

Sources:

• Lex18 – NBC http://www.lex18.com/news/traffic-crash-on-the-laurel-pulaski-county-line-is-fatal/
• Lex 18-NBC http://www.lex18.com/news/icy-roads-blamed-for-fatal-letcher-county-crash/
• U.S. Department of Transportation – Federal Highway Administration http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/weather/weather_events/snow_ice.htm