ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Police spent Wednesday dealing with abandoned vehicles left behind due to icy road conditions Tuesday night.
“It was just so treacherous out there,” said Wanda Creech. “I’ve just never seen it like that out there in my life.”
Creech wasn’t expecting her commute from downtown Atlanta to Gwinnett County to be so bad Tuesday night.
“The whole time I’m just going like 10 miles an hour and hoping and praying, and there was a time I drove off the road – well, didn’t drive; I started sliding, and slid off the road and narrowly missed two pedestrians who literally dove out of the way,” said Creech.
She’s not the only one with that stressful experience.
“People were sliding, and then obviously they ended up hitting other vehicles, and then people were afraid to drive or couldn’t make it up the hills, so a lot of stranded motorists out there,” said Officer Arnold with the Lilburn Police Department.
“I saw ahead of me just a pile of cars, so that indicated to me that it was black ice and it was an impassable area, so I just pulled over and decided to walk from there,” said Creech.
It’s a decision a lot of drivers made.
“That was our main concern. We were just trying to get tow trucks out here to get them out of the road,” Arnold said.
But no one was in trouble or in need of a parking ticket.
“We brought them here to our police station so they wouldn’t be impounded, and then from here obviously people still had their car keys and everything, so all they had to do was come and get them from here, rather than have to deal with a tow truck company and having to get them from an impound lot,” said Arnold.
As for Creech, her car made it home eventually.
“When we have weather reports that come in like this, I think workplaces need to be more aware of the safety of their employees and making sure people have a way to get home safely,” said Creech.
Gwinnett police had 1,082 weather-related calls and over 450 accidents calls.
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