Snow, wind get blame for 28 metro-east crashes

There isn’t a lot of snow on the ground in the metro-east.

But what there is has made conditions awfully slick with accidents all over the region, according to police.

“It’s bad,” Illinois State Police spokesman Calvin Dye Jr. said.

Numerous crashes were reported along interstates and secondary roads on both the Illinois and Missouri sides of the river.

▪  A fatal crash was reported overnight on Interstate 64 near Scott Air Force Base.

▪  O’Fallon rescue workers responded at just after 8 a.m. to a crash on South Trail.

▪  The Belleville Fire Department handled a crash at about 8 a.m. at North 37th Street and Summit Avenue with injuries.

Dye said there were 28 crashes on metro-east highways between 3:30 a.m. and noon Tuesday.

Of those 28 crashes, 17 occurred either on the Mississippi River bridges or within a few miles of them within what troopers call “the bridge complex.”

Dye said the other five crashes happened on Interstate 255 at the Illinois 15 exchange.

“Fortunately, there were no serious injuries,” Dye said. “People need to remember that they need to slow down and leave themselves extra room to stop when conditions are slippery.”

Roads are likely to remain slick throughout the evening and into Wednesday with temperatures well below freezing and the possibility of additional snow showers. Winds are also causing snow to be blown back over previously cleared roads.

The high Tuesday reached only 24, according to the National Weather Service. That’s 18 degrees lower than the average high temperature of 42 for mid-February in the metro-east.

But it seemed even colder because of winds blowing at up to 29 mph.

Tuesday night, the temperature will plummet to 12 under mostly cloudy skies.

There is a 20 percent chance of more snow Wednesday when the high will be 25.

The slight chance of snow will continue into Wednesday night when the low will be 14.

On Thursday, skies will be sunny with a high of 29.

It will become mostly cloudy Thursday night when the low will be 19.

Click here for the detailed local forecast.

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 6:36 AM with the headline "Snow, wind get blame for 28 metro-east crashes."