East Tennessee saw 118 crashes overnight during Friday snow, TDOT says

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – The East Tennessee region saw 118 crashes from midnight Friday into Saturday morning, according to the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Mark Nagi.

Ice and snow bought to the area by an early year winter storm caused many of those crashes. The storm created conditions that Nagi said are still dangerous for drivers.

Previous Coverage: THP, TDOT warns of possibility of treacherous conditions after winter storm hits East Tennessee

“People just need to understand that for the next few days, they’re certainly going to see patches of snow and ice on a lot of our roads,” Nagi said Saturday morning.

He said his department pretreated state roads, but cold temperatures could create problems for the next few days.

“Yeah, our crews pretreated roadways all day Thursday, and they have been on the job since the early morning hours yesterday,“ Nagi said. ”The challenges you run into is that there’s going to be a lot of refreezing, more than likely on our interstates and state routes.”

Previous Coverage: TDOT snowplow overturns on snowy TN highway

With that in mind, Nagi said, staying off the roads isn’t just about keeping drivers safe; Nagi said crews need the space too.

“It’s extremely dangerous work that our crews do each and every day, and especially during a winter weather event. Over in Smith County, there was a semi that hit one of our trucks,” Nagi said, adding that no one was hurt. “That’s why if folks can stay at home, please do. But if you do have to be on the roads, please give our crews the extra room that they need to to do their jobs.”

The Tennessee Highway Patrol gave their own stats Saturday morning. According to THP, the agency received 850 phone calls Friday and Saturday. Responses broke down like this from 6 a.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday:

• Calls: 382
• Crashes with injuries: 12
• Crashes with no injuries: 51
• Motor assist: 140
• Abandoned vehicles: 21
• Obstruction in roadway: 3
• Disabled vehicle: 1

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