Accidents Continue As Roads Deteriorate

By Jeffrey Smith, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- The roads went from bad to worse today as there were crashes all over town from South Tulsa to North, fender-benders were a common sight.

Tulsa Police did not respond to non-injury crashes. So, accident victims were left to figure it out for themselves.

The ice and the snow had drivers struggling at this intersection.

Some stalled, some crashed, and some barely made it up hills.

Many of them say they are shocked they didn't see one snow plow all afternoon.

At Harvard and the Broken Arrow Expressway, car after car limped up the hill, or died trying.

"I'm noticing that there's no crews out here salting and sanding these roads. Which is making these hills, impossible," said Brittney Freeman.

I helped push one lady who was stalled out on the road.

In the 20 minutes we were there, at least six other drivers needed help.

"Somebody really needs to be out here, they gotta get better with this. I mean they knew ahead of time that this was coming; they should have somebody out here taking care of this," said Kina Donnell.

A Public Works spokesman says there are more than 50 salt spreaders on the streets.

We went to the salt depot and there weren't any crews just hanging around.

That's little comfort to Brittany Freeman. She was on her way to work when she lost control and crashed into Kina Donnell.

"I have, I have a two year old daughter I'm trying to get to," Donnell said.

Officers didn't have to respond to non-injury crashes. One cop saw the damage, and the backup, but kept driving.

"What we really need is our police officers, and that's what we don't have and that's sad because we should have our police officers out here to help us out.

At long last, another cop stopped and quickly took charge.

He says he was just trying to help.

"I'm not even at work yet, I work up North," the cop said.

However, he says nearly every intersection is like this one, an absolute nightmare.

Kina Donnell says she was able to call her child's Babysitter and get her to stay late.

A lot of drivers out here told me they knew this was going to be a bad storm but they had to get to work, so they didn't have to a choice to be out on the roads.

A sand truck lost control in Sand Springs. The News On 6 is told the sand shifted and the truck's tire dropped off the road, causing the truck to tip over.

An SUV spun out on I-244 near 129th East Avenue. It was banged up when it slammed into the cable barriers.

Further west on I-244 near Sheridan, a white pickup lost control. Friends helped push the driver out of the median.

Northwest of downtown Tulsa, two cars hit ice. One ended up in the median of the Gilcrease Expressway. Another slid down an embankment near Pine.

On Highway 169, a car lost control and hit a fire truck near 71st Street. The fire truck had stopped to check on another accident.