Less than a week after enjoying unseasonably warm and sunny weather, many in Michigan are getting an early taste of winter, with snow squalls, cold gusts and below-freezing temperatures.
Two people died Monday in weather-related crashes -- one in the Detroit area, where icy roads caught some commuters off guard and dozens of vehicles spun out or bumped into each other.
A 42-year-old Westland man died in an accident on Interstate 96 near Greenlawn, just north of Fullertom. The interstate was closed from 7 a.m. to noon while police conducted an accident investigation.
Interstate 75 was shut down because of accidents in two spots in Oakland County and a tractor-trailer rolled over on an I-96 ramp.
In Ottawa County's Holland Township, local resident Shawntoy Chambers, 23, died after crashing into a Jeep that had overturned on U.S. 31. The Jeep driver and two passengers were treated at Holland Hospital and released.
Sgt. Keith Garvelink told The Holland Sentinel weather conditions appeared to have caused the rollover.
Nancy Cain with AAA said the company received 2,220 roadside assistance calls Monday morning. Cain said most of the calls were spin outs or crashes.
The auto insurance company also took well over 350 claims involving vehicle accidents.
Both numbers are very high, Cain said. The service calls are 25 percent above normal for this time of year.
Michigan State Police Officer David Boike told Local 4 he thinks the weather took commuters by surprise Monday morning and they were not prepared for the icy road conditions.
"My car just wouldn't stop sliding," said Victoria Finklea, who spun out while driving on 10 Mile Road.
The slick road conditions even caught the local road commissions off-guard. Craig Bryson of the Oakland County Road Commission admitted there were no salt trucks ready to deal with the ice and snow.
"Well, we did not plan to have any out this morning. We called out a couple very early in the morning. Normally with this amount of snow, if this were January or February, we probably wouldn't be doing anything with this amount of snow, except maybe the spot areas," said Bryson. "This being the first snow of the year kind of catches a lot of drivers off-guard and people are not used to driving in this kind of condition so that has had an impact on the morning as well, I think."
Although the snow tapered off, Local 4casters said black ice remained on many of the roads, especially overpasses and bridges.
However, by noon, most of the road conditions had cleared up.
An inch of snow or slightly more fell in the Detroit metro area, and 1 to 3 inches were recorded in southwestern Michigan.
Tuesday was expected to be mostly sunny with highs in the 40s, but another storm system could bring a mix of snow and rain to the state by Wednesday morning, forecasters said.
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