Local News
Snowfall brings highway headaches
JOHNSTOWN — Winter doesn’t officially arrive until Dec. 21, but for most of the region, it came on Saturday.
The snow started falling after 5 a.m. in Cambria and Somerset counties and caused problems throughout the day.
Numerous accidents took place in both counties.
Road crews were out in force and at least some were expected to stay on the job throughout the night.
Generally, about three inches of snow was on the ground, with some areas getting a bit more and others a bit less.
Central Park in downtown Johnstown was covered with nearly three inches of the white stuff just after 6:30 p.m.
“We have full crews out throughout the county,” Rodney Beiter, PennDOT’s assistant county maintenance manager in Cambria County, said just after 7 p.m.
“Right now, the roads are mostly wet and are refreezing in some areas,” he said.
Several roads in Cambria were closed for periods of time throughout the day because of accidents, Beiter said.
He noted the southern part of the county seemed to bear the brunt of the storm.
“It was a wet snow,” he added.
The situation was much the same in Somerset County as night fell.
No particular parts of the county seemed to be worse than others, said a PennDOT worker who declined to give his name.
Several roads were beginning to refreeze, he said.
Several accidents took place between
5:30 and 6:30 p.m. in Johnstown, including a multi-vehicle crash on the Johnstown Expressway behind Point Stadium. There were three accidents, all at about 5:30 p.m., on the Prospect Viaduct.
Cresson Township police investigated six accidents from 7:45 a.m. until just after noon, said Officer Jeffrey Thomas.
More than 12 accidents were reported in Somerset County throughout the day.
There were injuries in several of the accidents in both counties.
More information was not immediately available on those accidents, authorities said.
Today is expected to be mostly sunny with a high of 34 degrees and a low of 22 degrees, according to AccWeather.com.
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