Should Michigan State Police and Michigan Department of Transportation authorities have closed the Interstate 196 highway in West Michigan due to dangerous weather conditions before a 100-vehicle pileup crash in Ottawa County on Monday, Jan. 19, that left a dozen injured?
The state police, in conjunction with MDOT, have the authority to close highways in emergencies “to ensure the public safety” in a variety of emergencies, including “ice and/or snowstorms,” according to a 2022 state police procedure manual on the closure of state highways. But in practice, it’s virtually unheard of for a state highway to be closed on a precautionary basis in expectation of whiteout conditions.
Snow squalls are transient events whose impact on the ability to navigate roadways might vary greatly within less than a mile and less than a few minutes.
“By the time that (road closure order) would occur, the snow squall would be over. You can’t close down the roads in time,” State Police 1st Lt. Michael Shaw said.
The National Weather Service can issue snow squall alerts that people receive on their cell phones. But west Michigan had been under a winter storm warning “for about 30 hours” before the pileup on I-196, which began on westbound lanes between Zeeland and Hudsonville at about 10:20 a.m. and also affected eastbound lanes.
“We don’t issue snow squall warnings in conjunction with winter storm warnings, however, because the warning is already in effect; we are telling folks to avoid travel, that it’s a life-threatening condition,” said Bruce Smith, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Grand Rapids office.
Monday’s winter storm warning — in place before Monday morning’s pileup — indicated “whiteout conditions are expected that will make travel treacherous,” he said.
“This was a combination of light, fluffy, lake-effect snow with wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph and really cold temperatures,” Smith said. “That creates the kind of snow that reduces visibility and blows around. And when temperatures are down in the low to mid teens, as they were in this event, some of the treatments that we put on area roadways aren’t quite as effective, so you are more prone to get icy conditions on our expressways.”
Closing roadways for treacherous conditions in West Michigan on Monday would have brought the entire region to a halt, Smith said.
“We had reduced visibilities up and down the (Lake Michigan) coastline and into West Michigan, so isolating a location where it was worse than another spot would have been impossible. It was horrible all across west Michigan.”
Highway closures for severe winter weather aren’t just extremely rare in Michigan.
“I don’t think we would ever shut down an interstate for the chance of a snow squall,” said Matt Bruning, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation.
Instead, Ohio has instituted a Lake-Effect Snow Corridor on one of its busiest highways, Interstate 90 along the Lake Erie shoreline. The corridor, a 12-mile stretch in Ohio’s Lake County northeast of Cleveland, institutes variable speed limits based on weather conditions that are broadcast on digital signs along the highway.
“We can reduce the speed on that highway ahead of and during inclement conditions,” Bruning said. “It’s resulted in a significant reduction in crashes, especially those large pileups.”
It’s ultimately incumbent upon Michigan motorists to understand how severe winter weather can be here, and how quickly conditions can change, Shaw said.
“Slow down and drive for road conditions,” he said. “Really increase that driving distance so if something should happen in front of you, you will have time to react. A lot of times it happens so quickly, and slamming on the brakes is usually about the worst thing you can do, because you can lose control of your vehicle, particularly if you are going too fast for conditions.”
Smith urged people to heed the weather service’s warnings.
“The best thing to do is plan,” he said. “That’s why we issue watches and warnings, and try to give folks advance notice that they can make alternative plans.”
“When you have these rapid reductions in visibility and icy roads, it takes one slip-up on the roads, and you have these pileups.”
Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Should highway have been closed before 100-car pileup near Zeeland?
Reporting by Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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