MARSHFIELD – A combination of morning rain, wet snow and 20-degree-temperatures on Monday led to more than 20 minor car accidents in just the span of just a few hours, Police Chief Phil Tavares said. The light snow and rain that fell in the morning had frozen by noon, he said, and the DPW was scrambling to catch up with the quickly-forming ice.
“The drizzle that we had flash froze and it created significant hazards to the road conditions,” Tavares said. “We had cars off the road, cars into each other, we had head-ons... All of which were non-lifethreatening, thank God.”
Tavares said the first calls reporting icy conditions and crashes came from the North Side of town, on Union, Pine, Forest and School streets. They then received calls from closer to the center of town, on Acorn and Walnut streets, and ultimately were responding to accidents near Rexhame Beach.
“We were overwhelmed with the amount of accidents, we had to call in additional people and get them in on overtime,” Tavares said. “We exhausted all the Marshfield ambulances and had to rely on other communities to help us transport people.”
Fire Chief William Hocking said Duxbury and Pembroke ambulances responded to a 2 p.m., head-on collision on Parsonage Street. Four passengers were transported to South Shore hospital with minor injuries, but the extra vehicles were needed as all three Marshfield ambulances were tied up on other calls.
“You have to consider that there is a two-hour turn around time anytime we have a call,” Hocking said. “By the time we respond to the call, asses what’s happening, transport people and get back to town, it can take a while, we are 22 miles away from the two different hospitals (in Weymouth and Plymouth).”
Kristen Murphy was headed to the grocery store with her four children at around 12:30 p.m. when her car began sliding down Whitford Circle toward Webster Street. She said she was unable to stop on the ice and ultimately decided to turn around and wait for the DPW to get to her neighborhood before heading back out.
“It kind of snuck up on us,” she said.
By 4 p.m., all roads in Marshfield has been appropriately salted and most of the ice had dissipated.
“The DPW had already come in in anticipation of the snow and were getting their sanders ready, but when the flash freezing happened they called in additional crews and got out quickly,” Tavares said.
Hocking said these types of road conditions are characteristic of this winter’s weather.
“ It seems like we’ve seen it a few times lately, just this year,” he said. “I don’t know what’s causing it, but usually these flash freezes don’t happen like this.”
Mary Whitfill may be reached at mwhitfill@ledger.com.