By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Mother Nature is offering a repeat performance from a week ago when Central Illinois received a White Christmas followed by frigid temperatures.
This time, up to four inches of snow north of I-74 created hazardous driving conditions for Friday evening’s commute as a prelude to an arctic blast with perhaps record cold temperatures for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Police and rescue crews were called to many crashes on area interstates, including an accident between a sports utility vehicle and a pick-up truck that killed a 75-year old Chicago man in the northbound lanes of I-57, south of Champaign, between Tolono and Pesotum.
Illinois State Police said the driver of one of the vehicles was dead at the scene. Troopers said the other driver suffered serious, but not life-threatening injuries. A passenger also suffered non life-threatening injuries.
In Ford County, a multiple car pile-up happened on I-57, just north of Paxton. The right lane was blocked and several cars slid into the ditch to avoid the traffic back-up.
On I-55, WJBC’s Todd Wineburner said it usually takes him a half-hour to 40 minutes to make the trip to Pontiac. His Friday evening commute took about an hour, traveling at a speed of about 40 to 50 miles per hour.
Wineburner said he saw a couple of cars in the ditch.
“One just as I was leaving Bloomington-Normal, and then another just as I was leaving Chenoa,” Wineburner reported.
“It really wasn’t clear what had happened. They didn’t seem to be off the road at particularly treacherous points, but they obviously did not intentionally pull off the road. They were well off the road,” he added.
Wineburner also saw a traffic back-up on southbound I-55, about seven miles south of Chenoa, apparently because of a disabled vehicle.
The city of Bloomington put its snow route parking ban in place at noon Friday. All of downtown is considered a snow route, and motorists were asked to use public parking decks so snow plows could clear the streets.
Normal’s parking ban, from two o’clock Friday afternoon to seven o’clock Saturday morning, was for every street in town. Police can ticket vehicles parked on the street, so drivers who don’t have a driveway, garage, or parking lot, were asked to use lots at various parks in town.
A wind chill advisory for most of central Illinois begins at six o’clock Saturday evening and will run until Tuesday at noon.
The National Weather Service in Lincoln forecast wind chills ranging from 15 to 25 below zero, sinking to as low as 30 below zero late Sunday night into Monday.
The brutually cold conditions will cause frostbite in as little 30 minutes to exposed skin.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
