JANESVILLE — Street crews continued spreading salt and sand this morning on ice that has coated streets since freezing rain Saturday night, but it probably wasn't just the glare ice that led to a series of crashes involving seven vehicles just north of Janesville on Saturday night.
The driver whose car police believe triggered the chain of accidents—Dani J. Briggs, 55, Palmyra—was arrested on a charge of causing great bodily harm by drunken driving.
The person he is accused of harming is his wife, Barbara L. Briggs, 53. She was listed in critical condition at Mercy Hospital on Sunday, but her condition this morning was unavailable.
Briggs was trapped in the couple's Lincoln Town Car after it went out of control near the Highway 26 intersection with Wright Road. The car slid across the grassy median and into the path of an oncoming van.
The van hit the car broadside on the passenger side, the Rock County Sheriff's Office reported.
Janesville, Milton and Rock County officers responded to the scene around 8:29 p.m. Saturday.
Five other southbound vehicles were involved in crashes as they tried to avoid the crash scene, the sheriff's office reported. One minor injury resulted from those crashes. The sheriff's office did not immediately release the names of people involved in those accidents.
Officers shut down southbound traffic on Highway 26 and diverted it until about 10:15 p.m.
The Briggs car was struck by a full-sized van driven by David A. Cummings, 44, of Woodbridge, Ill., according to a news release. Cummings was not injured.
Dani Briggs suffered minor injuries and declined medical treatment.
Three other southbound vehicles avoided crashes but ran into the ditch and/or median.
Around the same time as this accident, authorities around the area began responding to numerous accidents and runoffs as a light rain froze to roads, making driving treacherous
Dani Briggs was held at the Rock County Jail pending a court appearance this afternoon.
Working 'about non-stop'
Some Janesville streets this morning were in relatively good shape this morning, city operations director John Whitcomb said, though "quite a number" remained ice covered.
That's despite street crews working "about non-stop" since Saturday night spreading a salt and sand mix, Whitcomb said.
"We'll keep at this as long as we need to as far as sanding," he said.
Crews began about 9 p.m. Saturday when arterial streets started icing over. All residential streets received the salt/sand mix, and crews finished every street by about 6 a.m. Sunday, Whitcomb said. Crews started a second pass over every street at about 8:30 Sunday morning, along with a third pass at 4 a.m. today, focusing on the school areas first, he said.
Crews will continue to address issues today, he said.
Sunshine helped a little Sunday, but salt doesn't have "a lot of value" in residential areas because there's not enough traffic to spread the brine that's created, leaving only little pock marks of melted snow or ice, he said.
"We use salt in situations like this to keep sand from freezing in our trucks," he said.