SNOW, COLD BRING ON VEHICLE ACCIDENTS

Before the car hit her car Tuesday night, Billie Roth of Cape Girardeau said she watched it slide down the icy hill like it had a will of its own.

"I've never driven when it was that slick before," Roth said. "The road was like a solid sheet of ice."

Mike Parry of Cape Girardeau said he felt helpless as his car slid on the treacherous Bertling Street hill into another immobilized car nearby.

"By the time I tapped my brakes it was over," Parry said. "The roads were awful. I'm just glad no one was hurt."

Roth and Parry were two of 16 Cape Girardeau drivers involved in eight weather-related accidents Tuesday after the second bout of snow fell this week, slowly but steadily blanketing the streets.

Despite city road crews' best efforts, many roads were dangerous. However, police say the number of vehicle accidents is miraculously low.

"Everybody has done real well so far," said Sgt. J.R. Davis, head of the Cape Girardeau Police Department's traffic division.

There were five weather-related accidents Monday and eight Tuesday night between 7 and 10 o'clock, far fewer than one might have expected, Davis said.

"That's pretty good considering the amount of snow we've gotten," Davis said. "They must have remembered to drive slowly and keep a good distance from one another."

Two of the accidents caused minor injuries. One of those injured was an Ironton woman, Vanessa Rene Casey, 18. She said she and her boyfriend, her brother and friends were returning home Tuesday night from shopping at West Park Mall when they saw a car stuck on the ice on Dogwood Street.

Casey stood atop a hill watching the men in the group push the stalled car. "I heard a car from behind and turned around," Casey said. "I saw a headlight, and that's all I remember."

She said the impact threw her several feet. She was taken to Southeast Missouri Hospital where she was treated and released.

Casey is pregnant. She said doctors told her that the baby's heartbeat seemed steady but she is awaiting results from an ultrasound to see if the baby was seriously injured.

Jackson police Lt. Robert Bonney reported a total of five accidents caused by the slick roads in Jackson since Monday, none of which resulted in injuries.

"That doesn't seem like that many when you think about how the roads got," he said.

Sgt. J.J. King of the Missouri Highway Patrol said that snow and ice always increase the number of automobile accidents on interstates, but figures weren't available.

Roads have consistently been icy since the year's first serious snow Monday, which dropped 3 to 4 inches in the immediate area.

Snow hit the area again Tuesday night, with less than half an inch accumulation. It also snowed briefly Wednesday morning. Combined with the below-freezing temperatures, the snow turned to ice in some places, causing the roads to be dangerous.

Wayne Young, director of member services for the AAA Auto Club, said calls have been up 30 to 40 percent in the region since Monday. Most of the calls have been from those with dead batteries, Young said. But there have been people calling in because of frozen car door locks and accidents, he said.

"The cold weather has a bigger effect on us than the snow," Young said.

But the bad weather problems aren't just on the roads. With the cold weather comes a greater chance of accidental home fires, said Mike Morgan, Cape Girardeau fire inspector.

This is partly due to an increased use of space heaters and other heating equipment, Morgan said. He said that the fire department has been to several places where the heaters have been too close to drapes and other flammable materials.

The National Weather Service is calling for flurries with possibly a couple of snow showers today. But not much accumulation is expected. The lows will be around 10 degrees but the wind chill factor will make it feel like 10 degrees below zero.

The temperatures should slowly start to climb, and by Sunday should be in the 40s.