Ravalli County Sheriff asks Drivers to Slow Down due to Icy Road
Ravalli County Sheriff Steve Holton told KGVO News late Tuesday morning that the roads, specifically Highway 93 South have become extremely slick and several accidents have been reported.
“Due to the moisture and a little bit of weather we're getting today along with the fact that it's just cold enough that those paved surfaces are starting to get really slick and ice up,” said Holton. “We've got a number of crashes all the way from Darby to Florence, and a couple of them are pretty severe.”
Holton said the crashes have been occurring all over the Bitterroot Valley.
“It looks like we've kind of got them scattered all over,” he said. “Right now we're on four different crashes across the county. Highway 93 appears to be taking the brunt of it. Not because it's any more slick or dangerous, it’s just that there’s more traffic there. We also have several ambulance calls outside of crashes, so we're really starting to stretch our emergency medical folks, our EMTs and ambulances at this point.”
Holton said the fact that there has been mild weather has helped drivers forget the season.
“We're asking now that people just really remember its January in the Bitterroot and we really have to slow down and take that extra few minutes of caution because there's very little traction on any paved surface at this point.”
Holton said there have been some serious injuries due to the accidents on Tuesday morning.
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