Twin Cities drivers got a slow-motion and ugly reminder Monday of what winter driving can bring.
A dusting of snow as the morning rush hour began led to a sudden coat of ice on metro-area streets and highways, turning what might have been an easy Veterans Day commute into a calamity of collisions and miles-long traffic tie-ups.
Roads should be clear and dry on Tuesday and remain so through the week amid steadily rising temperatures. Even Monday afternoon's rush hour went smoothly.
But that was after more than 50 crashes were reported during the morning commute, said State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske. Most occurred at the tops and bottoms of ramps where motorists could not stop, he said, but mainline highways, freeways and local thoroughfares had their share, too. No injuries were reported among the 50 accidents, the Patrol said.
On the steep Ramsey Street hill west of downtown St. Paul, a demolition derby of sorts took place, with at least a half-dozen crashes. In Minneapolis, a Metro Transit bus went sideways and blocked several lanes of southbound Interstate 35W south of downtown for about an hour. Twitter was awash with reports of spinouts and crawling lines of vehicles, and motorists lashing out at the Minnesota Department of Transportation for not reacting sufficiently to the icy conditions.
Most observers across the metro area measured less than a quarter-inch of snow, said state climatologist Greg Spoden. But as cars drove over the snow, it compacted and melted slightly, then refroze because the pavement surface and air temperatures were below freezing.
On Ramsey Hill, Kristin Rasmussen woke up to see six or seven crashes. She said it was one of the worst scenes she has seen there. City street crews didn't respond, and Rasmussen said a police officer handing out forms to accident victims told one "you are on your own."
That left the task of making the road passable to neighbors, who bought ice melter at a hardware store to spread on the street, and cleared a driving lane with shovels.
