ST. LOUIS – Slick and icy roads made for a dangerous Wednesday morning commute for drivers, including experts.
“I slid around, and I thought I was on a dry piece of pavement on my way to work yesterday morning,” Chris Steger, owner at Steger Service, said. “(Snow) was well plowed and next thing you know, I’m sliding.”
His shop handles calls for AAA and has been busy helping cars get back on the road. Road conditions have improved throughout the day, as MODOT took advantage of the sunshine and warmer road temperatures.
“That should start working if we get any kind of sunlight at all as those temperatures start coming up. Even though we won’t get above freezing, those roadway temperatures will be warm enough that our chemicals can start working,” District maintenance engineer for MODOT, Bob Becker, said.
By afternoon, the interstates looked mostly clear. However, before the sun came out, there were problems across the area, including several crashes during the morning commute.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol last night reported 230 crashes across the state with 248 stranded motorists.
Those numbers do not include any calls on Wednesday. AAA said 40% of their calls right now are for dead and disabled batteries due to the cold.
“These capacitance testers do a great job and tell us well ahead of time before your battery is going to fail, so I can tell my client, ‘Hey, in 10 months, when the weather gets cold, you’re going to get stuck,”” Steger said.
Steger recommends individuals to get their batteries tested before the cold winter months hit.
Further information on the latest travel conditions is available on MODOT’s travel map.