Emergency officials: Icy roads causing accidents across Pittsburgh region
Valentine’s Day is off to a slippery start, with freezing rain overnight creating dangerous road conditions and causing crashes and stranded vehicles across southwestern Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh emergency officials are urging residents to avoid driving in the city of Pittsburgh on Sunday morning due to icy conditions and a large number of collisions across the city.
Even emergency responders are no exception: city officials reported that three medic vehicles, three police cruisers and one fire engine were each involved in collisions in the course of responding to calls Sunday morning.
A police unit hit a patch of icy road on Milroy Street in Perry South just before 9 a.m., causing the car to slide into a house. No one in the house was injured, police said, but the officer was taken to the hospital to be evaluated for knee injuries.
No medics or firefighters were injured in any of the crashes, police said.
Pittsburgh Public Safety officials sent an alert tweet just after 8 a.m. asking residents to remain home unless it is an emergency.
“There’s been so many accidents, I couldn’t even guess how many right now,” an Allegheny County 911 supervisor said.
URGENT ALERT!
Public Safety is urging all motorists to avoid driving in the city unless it is an emergency.
The roads are extremely icy and dangerous.
Police, Fire and EMS are responding to multiple collisions & various roads are being closed to traffic.
Please stay safe. pic.twitter.com/3kR89Um87y
— Pgh Public Safety (@PghPublicSafety) February 14, 2021
Conditions have been similar in Westmoreland County, with ice-related crashes happening at a steady pace. At one point dispatchers relayed that state police have been seeing “just one accident after another.”
A Westmoreland County 911 supervisor said there have not been any major crashes.
The National Weather Service is forecasting that gradual warming should begin clearing up lingering icy roads by mid-morning.
However, meteorologists say a winter storm originally forecast to hit the area Sunday evening is now more likely to arrive in the early hours of Monday morning, and a winter storm watch will be in effect until Tuesday afternoon.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.
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