WESTFIELD – Sanding operations in the city were delayed after the bone chilling cold engulfed the city and the nation Monday evening because the city’s DPW workers had already been stressed by recent storms. No serious motor vehicle crashes appear to have resulted from the city’s icy roadways before the fatigued city workers went back out to spread sand on the icy roadways.
The wet and slushy conditions which prevailed Monday afternoon turned into treacherously icy roadways in the evening when temperatures dropped precipitously and, when Officer Richard Mazza contacted DPW supervisor Ed Wielgus at 6 p.m. to request that sander trucks start operating, Wielgus found that six employees he called declined the work.
James Mulvenna, the superintendent of the department, points out that “They had been out since seven o’clock the night before” and had been working steadily cleaning up the snow and keeping the roadways open since the snow started falling Thursday evening.
Mulvenna said that although the department has nine plow and sander trucks “four or five (workers) is generally enough” to keep the roadways treated. Workers “came in about eight (o’clock) and stayed out until one” he said and went on the say that the employees then “came back in about seven” o’clock Tuesday morning to resume their efforts to keep the roadways clear of ice and snow.
Westfield Mayor Daniel M. Knapik acknowledged before the temperature plunged that keeping the roads clear is largely a personnel problem, especially when snow clearing operations have to extend of multiple days.
“Drivers are the challenge during these storms,” he said. “We have to give them a break eventually before we send them out again. My understanding is that many of the employees were required to take a rest period due to the extended period of non-stop work.”
At least two accidents, on Willow Brook Lane and City View Boulevard, appear to have been caused by the icy conditions before the sanding trucks started to treat the roads.
But, although one operator was transported to Noble Hospital after her vehicle struck a utility pole, no serious injuries resulted from the crashes.
A third accident attributed to the slick roads was reported on Granville Road but the operator was not injured when his vehicle struck a utility pole shortly before 10 p.m.
