Thursday, January 15, 2015

AFTER THE ICY ROADS THAT CONTRIBUTED TO NUMEROUS CRASHES AND SEVERAL DEATHS, NORTH CAROLINA HAS TO DEAL WITH FOG. PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY AND USE YOUR FOG LIGHTS AS WELL. IT IS BETTER TO DRIVE YOURSELF TO YOUR DESTINATION INSTEAD OF BEING DRIVEN TO A DIFFERENT DESTINATION.



AFTER THE ICY ROADS THAT CONTRIBUTED TO NUMEROUS CRASHES AND SEVERAL DEATHS, NORTH CAROLINA HAS TO DEAL WITH FOG.  PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY AND USE YOUR FOG LIGHTS AS WELL.  IT IS BETTER TO DRIVE YOURSELF TO YOUR DESTINATION INSTEAD OF BEING DRIVEN TO A DIFFERENT DESTINATION.







RALEIGH, North Carolina — Triangle school systems decided Wednesday to open two hours late Thursday because forecasters warned that lingering drizzle and refreezing could cause ice spots on Triangle roads. But temperatures stayed at or above freezing.

A fog advisory was issued for Durham, Orange and Chatham counties by the National Weather Service until 10 a.m. Thursday. 

Wake, Durham, Orange, Johnston, Franklin and Granville county schools planned to open two hours late Thursday. Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Chatham County schools stayed with their regular schedules. 

Icy bridges and interstate ramps where a rash of accidents happened Wednesday were not recurring Thursday as low temperatures generally stayed at or just above the freezing mark.
Temperatures were forecast to reach the mid-40s Thursday.

There could be some rain Thursday evening, but forecasters were feeling iffy about that and said temperatures should not go below the low 30s.

“The bulk of model guidance indicates light rain will develop” in the early evening Thursday and move east across the region, but it should be gone by 1 a.m. Friday, the National Weather Service said.

“Confidence is lower than normal with regard to whether or not measurable precipitation will develop,” forecasters at the service’s Raleigh office said Thursday morning.
Road crews, however, were keeping an eye the0 bridges and other traditionally icy spots, which contributed to numerous accidents Wednesday morning and caused school delays and cancellations. 

Westbound Interstate 40 near Gorman Street in Raleigh was closed after a fuel truck owned by the Wake County Public School System overturned on a bridge, Raleigh police said. Firefighters indicated the truck was not loaded at the time.

In Chatham County, a tractor-trailer truck ended up overturned and partially submerged in Jordan Lake after the driver lost control on the icy eastbound U.S. 64 bridge over the lake. The driver was trying to avoid an earlier accident that involved another tractor-trailer and a pickup truck. No one was seriously injured in either accident, but it took hours to clear the trucks.

In Orange County, a Hillsborough fire pumper slid on ice and landed on its side off the pavement on Phelps Road. Officials said no one was hurt in the accident, which happened shortly after 6 a.m.

Bridges were particularly slick on Wednesday. Creedmoor Road, N.C. 50, was closed where it crosses Falls Lake because of ice on the bridge, officials said.
A Nash County sheriff’s deputy was one of three people hurt on U.S. 64 near Red Oak Road when a tractor-trailer smashed into the back of the deputy’s Dodge Charger patrol car where it was parked on the side of the road because of an earlier accident.
The State Highway Patrol said Deputy Matthew Joyner, 29, was taken to a hospital along with Shon Lamont Henderson, 39, of Rocky Mount, who was sitting in the car with Joyner after his car had slid and crashed. Neither had life-threatening injuries, troopers said.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, Roosevelt Collins, 67, of Winston-Salem, had minor injuries and was taken to a hospital, Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Michael Baker said. Troopers charged Collins and Henderson with driving too fast for conditions, Baker said.
One worry that always accompanies ice events did not materialize, with Duke Energy reporting no outages in the Triangle on Wednesday morning.