Snowstorms pound county

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

A series of winter storms buried Elmore County in snow during the last week, causing a large number of accidents and slide-offs on area roads.

Idaho State Police sent extra deputies to Elmore County to assist the Elmore County Sheriff's Department that was literally overwhelmed with the number of accidents they had to deal with.

"People are just driving too fast for conditions," Sheriff Rick Layher said, noting that at one point ISP officers had ticketed three drivers for doing more than 90 miles an hour on the interstate on a day where a more realistic speed for conditions was closer to 40-45 mph. To help his regular patrol deputy staff he called out extra deputies for overtime and even had some of his detectives working the roads last week.

Windy conditions that accompanied the snowstorms only added to the problems, creating white-out conditions on some stretches of road at times.

Last Wednesday, at least five semi tractor-trailer trucks were involved in accidents at the China Wall area west of Glenns Ferry, slowing traffic to one lane.

Thursday, accidents throughout the county kept deputies and ISP officers constantly moving from one accident to another.

While most did not involve injuries, some did, although there were no fatalities during the week.

Saturday Highway 20 was closed from Cat's Creek Summit to Fairfield for a large part of the day due to blizzard conditions and drifting snow.

Sunday morning the Idaho Transportation Department's website described the road conditions between Boise and Mountain Home as "extremely hazardous" and actually urged motorists using I-84 to "consider using an alternate route."

Complete details of most of the accidents were unavailable as officers were spending most of their time helping motorists in lieu of writing reports.

Layher and state officials are urging all motorists to slow down. Even if snow is not falling, black ice is common on area roads, which are being described as treacherous.

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