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Black ice wreaks havoc: Across region, roads, sidewalks turned into slippery sheets of glass

By bostonzest on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 6:30am

A flurry of single and multiple-car, black ice accidents have closed roads throughout the Boston area. UPDATE, 8:25 a.m. Gov. Baker has issued a two-hour delay for non-essential state workers due to all the ice.

  • Mass Ave Bridge inbound is close with two separate accidents.
  • Eliot Bridge has a 10 car accident.
  • Five cars collided on Washington Street in Roslindale.
  • West Roxbury is the scene of another multiple car slider.
  • Charlesgate has another accident.

Michael Ratty watched two people take diggers on the ice fields of Copley Square:

Copley ice

In many cases the roads are being closed while first responders wait for sanders and tow trucks.

Update 6:39AM

Additional 4-car accident on the Mass Ave Bridge.

First responders are having to walk to the accidents and have a couple of accidents with their vehicles.

15 car accident at the Fenway Exit and Charlesgate East.

Update 6:57 am
Fire requested Boston Police close the Chelsea Street Bridge- it is a sheet of ice.

Update 6:59 am

25 cars including police and fire vehicles disabled on Belleview Hill in West Roxbury.

Update 7:59 am

10m car accident on Cambridge Street at the Doubletree Hotel.

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Topics: 
Driving
Weather
Free tagging: 
ice


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Comments

By anon on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 6:33am.

It's the Eliot Bridge, not Eliot Street Bridge.

By Alison on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 6:54am.

Accident on BU bridge about 6.30am. Sidewalks are deadly too.

By anon on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 7:25am.

Sidewalks were a solid sheet of ice.

By johnmcboston on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 7:30am.

Sidewalks were a skating rink as well... Quite the mess.

By Sock_Puppet on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 7:36am.

Didn't salt my front steps.

Oh wait, that was me.

By anonism on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 8:40am.

...this morning, I'd say.

By Waquiot on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 8:56am.

Going out to grab the paper from the front walk I noticed the slickness, so I quickly grabbed the ice melt and laid down some for everyone else.

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 9:15am.

Some utter moron went out to fuel up the car last night and decided not to salt the driveway because it was all going to melt off overnight and the salt would be bad for the bikes that we planned to ride to work today...

Oh, wait - that was me!

By anon on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 8:12am.

As an update, the Mass Ave bridge is still closed inbound at 8:10am. There have been multiple police vehicles, tow trucks, and salt trucks moving about.

By Bugs Bunny on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 8:13am.

Watch out for black ice on those fancy stone sidewalks in front of the buildings - almost went down twice myself.

By ElizaLeila on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 11:59am.

fancy stone sidewalks

Granite?

By Ari O on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 8:26am.

For salting their sidewalks along Western Ave.

Once I hit the bridge over Soldiers Field Road, however, I ate shit. Whoops.

By Marco on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 10:23am.

with the WD-40 INSIDE the car I went old school and started breathing on the lock. In the minute I sat there doing that I saw 2 bikers turn onto the street and eat it. hard. One went full yard sale and lost a bunch of their belongings to the street.
The jerk in me laughed but I started shouting at people to be careful and slow down. Folks coming out of their houses instantly going "WHOA" and flailing about.
Several back roads in Somerville shut down by police trying to clean up bad crashes.
This must be how Atlanta feels when they get an inch of snow. It's terrifying.

By ElizaLeila on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 12:01pm.

Learned the trick from my dad to have matches or a lighter on hand to heat up the key.

By adamg on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 8:46am.

The greatest graphic boston.com will ever run.

Of course, longtime Bostonians already know how to walk like a penguin:

By anon on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 9:33am.

Remember all those times that people here made fun of Seattle or Vancouver when they get hit with actual snow?

They are now laughing their arses off at how people here don't know how to drive ice.

Tire chains are a thing! So is staying home until it melts off.

By blues_lead on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 10:02am.

I thought chains were illegal here - they damage the roadway.

By roadman on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 10:35am.

from November 1st to May 1st. There is nothing in Massachusetts state law restricting or prohibiting the use of tire chains. However, note that tire chains are generally considered impractical to install on modern front wheel drive cars.

https://www.boston.com/cars/news-and-reviews/2015/12/10/tire-chains-you-...

By anon on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 10:31am.

They have been redesigned - they take 5 minutes. 10 if you have AWD.

By blues_lead on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 2:15pm.

Ah, thanks

By roadman on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 9:40am.

I was amazed at the number of people wearing sneakers or dress shoes. Apparently, nobody bothers to check the weather report just before leaving the house.

By Gary C on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 11:04am.

My sneaks have better grip than my boots. (OK my boots suck, but that's another issue.)

By anon on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 11:25am.

Looks are deceiving. My "sneakers" are built for trail running and have fairly aggressive soles.

They also allow me to feel the pavement better.

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 9:44am.

By adamg on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 9:57am.

By adamg on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 10:24am.

By JPnik on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 10:37am.

My road had two spun out cars, blocking the street fully at the entrance and exit. Fun day. Good thing i could walk with YakTrax. I am surprised so few people use these kinds of traction devices.

By Saul on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 10:40am.

Stabilizers work great too on sheets of ice.

By ElizaLeila on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 12:03pm.

Incredibly useful for those who have pullers/sled dog wannabes.

By adamg on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 11:01am.

WBZ reports a man helping somebody out around 7 a.m. was struck and killed by another car whose driver couldn't stop on the ice.

By Gary C on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 11:06am.

That's the worst result when someone is being a good Samaritan.

By Dave on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 4:47pm.

That would have been along my commute had I not needed to stop for gas in Westwood.

By anon on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 11:37am.

Thank goodness Walsh didn't reschedule the Patriots' parade for today!

By anonism on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 12:30pm.

Parades ASAP! Because of such weather as Thursday's.

Still, Marty gets criticized for having it on Tuesday. Oh, brother...

By anon on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 2:19pm.

As we've seen from previous post's comments, some people can't even help but bitch about a championship parade. Regardless of the handful of curmudgeons on this site who whined about Tuesday's parade saying not many people would show up do to the light snow/rain, 1 million people attended and had a blast! Parade and crowd were awesome.

By anon on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 2:22pm.

So with all the moisture/snow yesterday still on the ground, and temperatures dropping to 24 overnight, how come the city/towns failed to pre-salt the roads? This is what USUALLY happens when it's wet and temps are forecast to drop. I instinctively slow down and expect it to be slippery whenever it's below 32 and the roads are wet/shiny - I expect the departments whose job it is to watch the forecast like shithawks to be even more vigilant.

By foresthills on Wed, 02/08/2017 - 4:15pm.

A fire engine slid on the ice crashed into a light pole on Northbourne Road early this morning!