The continuous snowfall and sub-zero temperatures in East Lansing have been posing a threat to student drivers on and across campus since the start of the semester.
Although the roads on campus have been accessible and the lesser of concerns lately, the same can’t be said for the roads in the surrounding area.
East Lansing police Capt. Jeff Murphy said the snow-covered roads have caused several accidents in the area this week.
“Any time we have weather extremes, whether it’s snow, ice, heavy rain, anything that changes the road conditions (can) trigger a lot of accidents,” Murphy said.
Murphy said it’s important for drivers to adjust to the weather by decreasing speed and increasing following distance during the winter months.
On Thursday night, the MSU Physician’s Office released a statement to students warning them about severe weather conditions to follow this weekend and providing tips to stay warm and prevent health emergencies.
Hospitality business senior Kevin Madaus encountered some winter weather troubles of his own while driving his 2005 Chevrolet TrailBlazer on US-131 back to East Lansing after Christmas break. He said his car was totaled in an accident.
“I was changing the song on my iPod when all of a sudden I felt my car hydroplane and then my car started sliding sideways,” Madaus said. “I hit a snowbank and my car rolled on its driver side.”
Michigan Department of Transportation communications director Jeff Cranson said it’s all about speed when it comes to tips for how drivers can remain safe on the ice and snow covered roads.
“You gotta slow down in these kinds of conditions,” Cranson said. “The pavement might look dry, and that’s where the term ‘black ice’ comes from.”
Although the roads might be covered in salt, Cranson said it becomes ineffective when temperatures get into the negatives.
Murphy said the worst areas for causing car accidents are US-127 and I-496, where the speeds limits are higher.
“We try to get to those (areas) as soon as possible and first because we know from experience that if we don’t get to those first then they cause more accidents because people are distracted by damaged cars,” Murphy said.
Getting to Madaus’s car wreck in the middle of the most recent winter storm was not so simple though.
“I was scared and didn’t know what to do because I was four hours away from home and knew it would be more than four hours until someone could come pick me up,” Madaus said.
Car accidents are not only a distraction to other drivers on the expressway, but on main roads as well, such as on Grand River Avenue.
When car accidents block roads, drivers often cut across lanes and cause other accidents to occur, Murphy said. He said ELPD tries to be on the scene as quickly as possible to clear the road.
“You don’t need to leave the damaged vehicles in the road,” Murphy said. “If they are able to be moved to a safe spot until the police officer gets there, then that’s fine.”
Construction management junior Ryan Konen said he hasn’t had any trouble lately with sliding on ice while driving on MSU’s campus, but he has heard frequent accounts of people slipping on icy sidewalks.
Since Konen runs on MSU’s cross country team, traveling amongst the treacherous ice patches on the sidewalks has been a challenge when he and his team go out for a run.
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“Some of the sidewalks are a little bit icier, especially on River Trail,” Konen said.
“Roads aren’t too bad, I thought snow removal was pretty well when they opened campus back up.”
