Roads OK Tuesday Night, But Fears Of Wednesday Persist
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- So what was it like driving Tuesday night?
CBS 2's Mobile 2 technology produced live images from the streets of White Plains.
Christine Marin of Port Chester may have been scraping away the ice, but she couldn't scrape away her concerns about the ice storm come Wednesday morning.
"If the roads aren't going to be that clean, you could be sliding into, you know, anything," Marin told CBS 2's Sean Hennessey.
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Just ask Tammy Pieter, whose iced up car was at the whim of the weather.
"This morning I slid around like 180 degrees on the other side of the road," Pieter said.
It was a scene repeated throughout Tuesday when cars were fish tailing or flipping over. The icy conditions were hardly forgiving.
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To keep the roads safe, salt trucks were loaded up and then sent on the highways -- part of an all-night anti-icing operation helped in part by surface sensors. If the road is too cold, salt will do more harm than good.
"Because it's just laying on top and not actually melting and it's breaking the contact from the roadway and you're sliding on salt, so too much salt is not good either," said Cross Westchester Maintenance Supervisor Donny Wood.
Vehicles didn't have many problems Tuesday despite a light snow, but if the ice man cometh, drivers will experience a different dynamic.
"They may react to things that they see on the road but their car may not be able to stop the way they're used to having it stop and that's a real problem," Westchester County Legislator Bill Ryan said.
Icy conditions led to some big accidents on Long Island early Tuesday morning, ahead of a second wave of the midweek storm.
A seat from inside a passenger van and one of the vehicle's doors rested on a mound of snow -- the aftermath of a serious accident in Melville.
The van's windshield was cracked and its front left side was smashed in after it crashed into a tree on Maxes Road. All 12 people inside were injured, with the three passengers most seriously hurt being treated at Nassau University Medical Center.
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WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs on Tuesday's messy roads
Willow Avenue and 19th Street in Weehawken, N.J. was the site of another serious accident where a car slid underneath a garbage truck. Firefighters were on hand to help as the female driver, critically injured, was extricated from the vehicle.
Later in the morning, traffic was moving well on Long Island's highways. A sign above the Long Island Expressway cautioned drivers about road and ramp icing.
Jim Dowling told CBS 2's Wendy Gillette that he drove his repair truck over some icy sections this morning, but overall conditions were good, which was not what he expected as the second wave of this storm develops.
"I think tonight is going to be very dangerous, very icy. Everyone has to take caution. Stay home," he said.
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1010 WINS' Mona Rivera with drivers on Long Island
After eight storms since Christmas, drivers like delivery truck operator Gerald Mason said the weather was getting in the way of their work.
"Terrible. I hate it. Sure do hate it. Trucks slipping and sliding all day, it's very dangerous," he said.
