On Sunday morning between 7:00AM and 12:00PM, the Ramapo Police were dispatched to at least 70 weather related calls. These included motor vehicle accidents with injuries and without, disabled vehicles and medical calls for injuries from falling on the icy pavement. In addition to these incidents, police officers assisted motorists and pedestrians as they were responding from call to call and responded to non-weather related incidents.

Ramapo Police’s emergency communications center was inundated with hundreds of calls for emergencies, non-emergencies and inquiries from the public with weather related questions.

In the future, all Ramapo residents are urged to use extreme caution when there are slippery conditions and avoid any unnecessary driving. Furthermore, when available, check the current weather and temperatures prior to any driving.

State, County and local highway departments were notified in the early morning hours to treat the slippery roadways. Crews did respond, however, with the icy/rain precipitation, it appears that road salt was washed away and roads refroze and became impassable even after being salted.

The calls indicated above were only during the first half of the day. While the volume of calls has decreased, we are still responding to numerous accidents related to the slippery pavement. The temperatures are now above freezing, however, as of the time of this press release, there is still a freezing rain advisory until 4pm today with 2/10th – 3/10th of an inch of ice accumulations possible.

The national weather service has also issued a flood advisory for our area, and those who are driving should not drive their vehicles into areas where the water covers the roadway.
Most flooding deaths occur in automobiles.

Temperatures are forecasted to drop below the freezing level overnight and into the early morning hours (3am-11am for tomorrow 1/19/15). Please use caution as roadways will be wet and likely the conditions will be hazardous again.

(YWN Monsey Newsroom)