Ice causes mayhem on Valley roads

MAT-SU — Between 8 a.m., Friday when Alaska State Troopers responded to the first accident at Mile 47, Parks Highway and a second pile up at the same spot around 4 p.m., an estimated 300 vehicles were in ditches in the Mat-Su Borough.

Of those, troopers say there were nine vehicle crashes that were damage only and just three injury crashes.

Drivers had known since the National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory Nov. 20 for communities in the Matanuska Valley that freezing rain was expected from 5 a.m., Friday to 5 a.m., Saturday.

Instead, the predicted rain didn’t come until buses begin to pick up and deliver elementary students to Valley schools, according to Mat-Su Borough School District Spokesperson Catherine Esary. By then, it was too late to change the plan since students were already at bus stops and many parents had already left for work, she said.

According to Patty Sullivan with the Mat-Su Borough public information office, there were at least four bus accidents Friday morning, including one injury accident around 9:26 a.m. on Edlund Road in the Knik-Fairview area that sent three students and the bus driver to the hospital for treatment. Edlund Road was closed while emergency crews and First Student responded.

Troopers say the driver, Catherine West, 48, of Wasilla, was southbound on Edlund when she attempted to negotiate a downhill curve during extremely icy conditions.

Wasilla resident Michelle Overstreet was behind the bus on Edlund near Bill’s Way when it began a slow-motion slide into the ditch and tipped onto its side.

“It just slid like the road was glass,” she said.

Overstreet and several other drivers stopped and helped students out of the bus and sheltered them in their private vehicles. She said the first boy she zipped into his coat described his experience inside the bus.

“My friends were flying,” the boy told Overstreet. “My friend flew out of his seat and landed on top of me.”

Overstreet said the 14 kindergarten through second-grade students on the bus said they had been headed to Super Hero Day at Snowshoe Elementary School.

The bus was using chains and still slid off the road, she said.

“Nobody should be out in this,” Overstreet said. “At some point we have to decide that the safety of our children supersedes attendance requirements.”

Sullivan said borough and state road crews were out in force Friday serrating the ice, sanding and chipping, but roadways were still slick and travel difficult.

Early in day Friday, Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Megan Peters urged Valley residents to stay home and off of roadways. She said some Valley roads, like Vine, were impassable by then. Not just from ice, but also from the more than 20 vehicles off the road on just one hill, Peters said.

Vehicles on Vine were creeping along at 5 mph and still sliding sideways off the road, she said.

“If you don’t have to leave your home, don’t,” Peters said.

Vine was just one example of icy road conditions impeding travel. She said many local roads had cars stuck in the middle of them and off on the sides because they just couldn’t get traction. Throughout the day Friday, the Parks Highway, Knik-Goose Bay Road and Pittman Road also were closed due to accidents blocking travel, troopers say.

Troopers also were turning people around in some spots when they encountered drivers and knew the road ahead was impassable, Peters said.

Road conditions also hampered emergency responders. Peters said a couple of fire trucks responded to incidents Friday morning and weren’t able to get traction to leave the scene.

Adding to the confusion was an errant subject line on a message sent to parents of Mat-Su Borough School District students. The message itself was accurate, Esary said, elementary classes would go ahead as planned. But the subject line said the opposite, that classes were canceled for elementary students Friday.

In an attempt to alert parents of the error, the district sent out an automated phone message to parents and made announcements on the radio and on Facebook.

Many community members on the Frontiersman’s Facebook page and website questioned the district’s decision to continue with classes in the face of the forecast for freezing rain.

“Once we get kids on the road it’s better to bring them to school,” Esary said Friday.

Bus traffic home was smoother, but commuters in Wasilla and farther up the Parks Highway were snarled behind a second accident near Mile 47, Parks Highway. The area is a Traffic Safety Corridor and plans are in the works to upgrade the highway from Lucus Road in Wasilla to the turn off to Big Lake.

Emergency crews responded to an accident around 4:09 p.m., Friday on the railroad overpass near Museum Drive on the Parks to an accident involving three passenger vehicles and a semi truck.

Troopers on scene said Michael Dugan, 36, of Wasilla lost control of the Dodge Durango he was driving while navigating a right hand turn. He was traveling north on the Parks when his truck slid into oncoming traffic and collided with a Peterbilt semi driven by Daniel Morris, 63, of Utah.

The collision caused the semitrailer to fishtail and it then struck a Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Steven Cooper, 53, of Wasilla.

Dugan, Cooper, and Cooper’s passenger, Dawn Cooper, 60, of Wasilla, were all transported to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries, according to troopers.

The Parks Highway was closed until around 9 p.m., Friday while troopers investigated and cleared the scene.

MASCOT and Valley Mover also canceled regular bus service. The Palmer and Wasilla pools closed due to dangerous conditions. Several community events were moved to other nights and the school district canceled most after-school and Saturday activities. Also, borough offices closed at 1 p.m., Friday.

Matanuska Electric Association also reported around 500 members lost power in the Butte, Meadow Lakes and the area from Sutton to Matanuska Glacier due to the ice storm.

Photo editor Robert DeBerry contributed to this report.

In the event of hazardous road conditions, here are some useful resources to report hazards or get updated weather information before beginning a trip.

• Mat-Su Borough roads hotline — 745-9826.

• State roads hotline — 745-2159.

• State road information online — 511.alaska.gov.