Thick, heavy snowfall totaling 4-6 inches in most parts of the Upper Valley contributed to numerous motor vehicle accidents on Friday.
A two-vehicle crash on Route 120 in Plainfield hospitalized four people and a dog, while two tractor-trailer crashes were among seven recorded incidents involving vehicles along Interstate 89 in Vermont south of mile marker 35, according to the Royalton State Police Barracks.
Police in Lebanon responded to nine motor vehicle incidents, including an overturned city sidewalk plow on Route 12A that forced a lane closing.
Both drivers in the Route 120 crash — which closed both lanes for nearly an hour late Friday morning — were Claremont residents, according to Plainfield Police Chief Paul Roberts.
A southbound red SUV was traveling under the posted speed limit, witnesses told Roberts, when it spun into the northbound lane and was struck by an oncoming silver pickup truck.
A female passenger in the northbound vehicle was hospitalized with arm and shoulder injuries after she apparently attempted to brace the impact of a Pomeranian dog that may have been sitting on the center console, Roberts said. None of the injuries were life-threatening, according to Roberts, though the southbound driver was bleeding from a head laceration.
The dog was taken to Riverbend Veterinary Clinic in Plainfield.
“We thought it might have had a broken leg, but I called the vet and it was fine,” Roberts said of the canine’s status.
Both directions of I-89 in east central Vermont had incidents involving tractor-trailers, State Police Sgt. Rich Slusser said. In Hartford, a northbound truck jackknifed around 8 a.m. near the junction with Interstate 91, according to a WPTZ-TV report, causing a lane closing until just before 10:30 a.m.
Later, in Royalton, speed and weather were factors when the driver of a southbound tractor-trailer lost control and overturned, causing damage to the truck’s entire right side, according to a state police summary of the crash. The driver was uninjured and was issued a citation for driving too fast for the current road conditions.
Reached by phone around 3 p.m., Slusser was preparing to respond to a two-vehicle accident on Clay Hill Road in Hartland.
“The big takeaway is ‘slow down,’ ” Slusser said. “We actually had more incidents (on Tuesday), which was the first real snowfall of the season. Today’s snow was heavier and wetter, which I believe causes more people to stay home.”
The sidewalk plow that overturned on Route 12A was headed southbound on the area of the road also known as South Main Street, according to Lebanon Assistant Director of Public Works Jay Cairelli.
“The (southbound) lane was closed for about 15 minutes while I was there,” Cairelli said. “It was a narrow section of the sidewalk with a retaining wall and the back tires just slipped right off.”
Bradford, Vt., sidewalk plower Richard Simmons also slipped off the sidewalk near the corner of Route 5 and Route 25B, but avoided toppling over. “The curb there got rebuilt a little while ago and my rear tire slipped right off the abutment,” said Simmons, 61, who’s been plowing Bradford’s sidewalks off and on since the 1970s. “Luckily, one of our (road plows) was right there at the time and pushed me right back up.”
With a pair of relatively rare snow events striking the region prior to Thanksgiving Day, area tire centers scrambled to keep up with demand for new snow tire orders and tire changeover appointments.
Cars waiting to have their snow tires installed at Tire Warehouse in West Lebanon were lined up along both sides of the entrance on Thursday night, and a clerk there said the next available appointment, not including allotted walk-in spots, was on Nov. 27.
At PTO’s Garage in Bradford, Vt. — which sells and installs tires, plows and sanding machines — co-owner Kim Ordway said she received 93 calls during the area’s first significant snowfall on Tuesday.
“I’d say about 50 percent of the calls were for tires and 50 percent were for plows,” said Ordway, who said the garage was scheduled out for tire changeovers until Dec. 7. “It might seem like it’s early in the season, but it’s not that early, really. Some people just wait until they see snow on the ground.”
Besides making roads slick, the storm is a boon for Vermont’s ski resorts.
Okemo Mountain and Stowe Mountain Resort opened on Friday as the snow continued to fall. Sugarbush is opening today, according to The Associated Press.
Killington Resort, which is preparing to host the FIS Ski Women’s World Cup on Nov. 23-25, already is open, and other ski areas plan to open later this month.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.