COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The winter season in Central Ohio is prime time for major crashes, and Monday night, almost all local highways were closed because of crashes -- even though there was little to no snow on the ground.
NBC 4's Marshall McPeek reported on the bottom line on the cause of the crashes and how the city and state plan to prevent similar incidents.
As temperatures fell Monday night, the rain-snow mix started to change to snow and the water already on the ground began to freeze. That creates a challenge for road crews.
Some people -- even inside the Ohio Department of Transportation -- said the agency was caught off guard by the situation.
"It was not a surprise to ODOT. We actually has crews out the night before and we were communicating with our crews at 3 p.m. In fact, by the evening rush hour at 6 p.m., we had crews in the southern part of the county and they were responding," said Nancy Burton, an ODOT representative.
ODOT was using its Smart Salt Strategy for the first time.
Drivers used infared sensors to check surface temperatures and only spread salt were necessary, added sand to provide better traction and save salt and used calibrated spreaders to only drop the amount of salt absolutely necessary.
"Our crews were out starting at 7 p.m. Then we had up to 16 crews between 7 and 10:30 and were responding and were salting," Burton said.
The city and county also had crews on the roads, using traditional methods.
"We were able to handle that until we were able to get the sufficient number of crews at night to hand it for the rest of the night and this morning," said Mary Carran Webster, Assistant Public Service Director.
"We anticipated it and with all the forecasting folks out there, it worked out real well. We got the roads treated and didn't have any issues," said Thomas Nutini, Franklin County Highway Superintendent.
ODOT said it does not plan to alter its Smart Salt Strategy, because they think the plan to be 30 percent more efficient with salt worked just fine.
ODOT officials are shifting most of the blame to drivers, McPeek reported, whom ODOT said were driving too fast for the first, wintry night of the season.
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