FOND DU LAC COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – Once again as winter weather and icy roads return, Wisconsin drivers appear to have lost their touch behind the wheel.
Over one-hundred crashes and runoffs were reported throughout Northeast Wisconsin, including along Interstate 41 on Wednesday morning. That includes yet another crash involving a squad car in Fond du Lac County.
Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt says a deputy was pulled over on I-41 to help another driver who had gone into the ditch.
“What was an emergency vehicle partially blocking a lane of traffic and moving traffic over, turned into a crash scene itself. So then we have to re-stage additional resources to get people to move over that much sooner. There’s a snowball effect – no pun intended – when crashes occur at crash scenes,” says Waldschmidt.
The sheriff also reminds drivers that it doesn’t matter how well you think your vehicle handles in the snow or if you have a big truck with giant tires, you still need to slow down.
“The speed limit goes out the window when road conditions aren’t perfect. In the case of snow or ice, the law says you have to adjust or reduce your speed down to whatever it takes to safely maintain control of your vehicle. If that means driving twenty below the speed limit, that means driving twenty miles an hour below the speed limit.”
Waldschmidt believes the weather and road conditions should help dictate how you drive. It’s even more important to pay attention when you see flashing lights up ahead.
“When you add the complexity of the weather in with slippery roads, snow falling – it’s all the more reason you need to slow down even that much further. Just be crawling along if that’s what it takes to get past the scene safely,” Waldschmidt says.
In the case Wednesday morning, nobody was injured.
“Thankfully the driver struck a squad car and didn’t strike one of the people, one of the emergency workers outside of the vehicle at the scene. And that’s why we need people to slow down and drive safely.”
This isn’t the first time drivers have struck a sheriff’s department vehicle in the county either. Just last year, a vehicle was hit and another was narrowly missed by drivers going too fast for conditions.
