While traffic appears to moving normally through Troy this morning, that wasn’t the case Sunday night.
Icy roads caused a number of vehicles to spin out and police and emergency officials trying to help them wound up being crash victims themselves.
“It was a bad night,” said Lt. Bob Redmond, public information officer for Troy.
Troy had to close down I-75 for about an hour between 10:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. last night when it became clear the roadway was too icy to travel.
“On northbound I-75, an ambulance was on the side of the road assisting with a previous crash and another vehicle lost control and struck the rear of the ambulance,” Redmond said.
There were no injuries from those accidents, but it did prompt officials to close I-75 until salt trucks could reach the area. The stretch of the freeway closed was between 14 Mile and Rochester Roads.
At about the same time, a Troy police officer was injured on Big Beaver Road at Dover.
Redmond said the officer was driving on the road when he witnessed two vehicles spin out independently and strike the same utility pole.
“He was trying to get to those cars and pulling over behind them, then a car behind him crashed into him,” Redmond said.
The officer was injured and taken to the hospital, but Redmond said he is expected to be OK. No one else was injured in the accident.
“It’s one of those things, when (the ice) hits, it hits,” Redmond said. “Everything was fine until it hit the freezing mark.”
He said that with fewer people driving salt trucks this year, motorists should expect roadways to be in worse conditions for a longer period of time.
“We’ve got some evidence of that already, so drive carefully,” Redmond said.
