SIDNEY — The first significant snow of the year brought with it freezing temperatures and high winds. The storm arrived first by rain early Sunday morning, which then turned to snow as temperatures dropped.
And because of the anticipated cold night, the Warming Center of Shelby County was open Sunday evening, Jan. 10, 2016. The warming shelter, which is located at the Sidney First United Methodist Church, opens anytime overnight temperatures are predicted to be 20 degrees or colder.
The rain/ice/snow made traveling dangerous Sunday morning for travelers.
“We’ve had six crashes so far between the Piqua and Wapak Posts,” said a dispatcher for the Piqua Highway Patrol. “That’s not counting slide offs where there was no damage.”
At the height of the storm, motorists were not paying attention to how fast they were traveling for road conditions. Between the two posts, there were three different areas on Interstate 75 that were shut down because of accidents. Many semi-tractor trailers jackknifed because of speed and the road conditions.
Just north of Wapakoneta, the interstate was closed for 1 1/2 to 2 hours because of an accident.
Another accident occurred at the Shelby/Miami county line on I-75 around 8 a.m. One person was trapped in the vehicle and was extricated by the Sidney Fire Department.
The accident, said Trooper James Davis, involved a Nissan Pickup Truck and a commercial vehicle.
“The weather had just turned bad,” said Davis. “The pickup was overtaking the commercial vehicle, which was in the right lane. As the driver came in front of the vehicle to merge into the right lane, he lost control of the truck and went sideways.”
The commercial vehicle, said Davis, struck the passenger side of the truck. The vehicles went off the road into the culvert.
Brandy Boyer, Lakeview, was cited for failure to control and driving under suspension.
His wife, Toni Michelle Boyer, was in the front passenger seat and was trapped in the vehicle after impact. Once Sidney firefighters removed her from the vehicle, she was transported to Miami Valley Hospital with serious injuries.
Another passenger in the vehicle, son, Michael, and driver Brandy Boyer were transported to Wilson Memorial Hospital with minor injuries.
The commercial vehicle was driven by Andrew Bell of Ontario, who was also taken to Wilson Memorial with minor injuries.
Both vehicles were disabled in the accident.
“The actual cause of the accident was that the tires on the vehicle were past their wear limit,” said Davis. “At the time of the crash, the roads were not wet and there was no accumulation of snow yet.”
Davis, who was on the roads all day, said for the first hour after the snows started at 8 a.m. the roads “were pretty bad. Once the snow stopped, ODOT was able to get a handle on the roads. Now (at 2:45 p.m. Sunday), the roads are mainly wet.”
Many slide offs are being reported on I-75 north of Sidney to just the south of Lima.
The city of Sidney dispatched its street crews to salt the streets. No accidents were reported during the early morning storm by the Sidney Police Department.
The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office reported several trees down on roadways and vehicles in the ditch.
AccuWeather is predicting a cold start to the work week. Monday’s high is only supposed to be 22 degrees with a low of 22 degrees. It will be mostly sunny and very cold.
The remainder of the week sees a chance of snow returning Tuesday with another very cold day. Temperatures will be around 24 degrees with a low of 3 degrees. Wednesday will be partly cloudy and breezy with temperatures remaining in the teens.
A slight warm up will happen Thursday when a high of 33 degrees is predicted. Friday will be cloudy and milder with highs in the low 40s and lows in the upper 20s.
The National Weather Service says a strong cold front whipped Cleveland and much of northern Ohio with high winds gusting to 45-50 mph during the day Sunday. Monday morning wind chills are expected of zero to 5-below zero.
Southern and central areas of Ohio can expect sharply colder weather Tuesday and Wednesday, with wind chills below zero into Wednesday morning. Forecasters say those regions should be ready for snow to accumulate to 1-to-2 inches Monday night into Tuesday.
Snowfall of an inch or less caused scattered slide-off accidents Sunday morning on slippery roads in southwest Ohio and other parts of the state.
