IONIA, Mich. — So many drivers crashed on M-21 near Bertha Brock Park west of Ionia the state highway was shut down shortly after 5:30 a.m.
The highway was reopened after 7 a.m.
The National Weather Service office in Grand Rapids reported road surface temperatures around the freezing mark, even though air temperatures remained in the mid 30s to near 40° Wednesday morning. The rainfall was very brief and generally light, but accumulations of only a few hundredths of an inch were enough to create the icy glaze on some of those roads.
The rain moved out of most locations by 6:00 A.M., and the forecast for the rest of the day will allow roads to dry out quickly as sunshine and breezy conditions develop.
One of the accidents involved a state trooper, and another shortly after 6 a.m. involved a car and a semi.
Rain overnight fell on pavement that may already have been icy from light snows on previous days.
As drivers hit the roads in Ionia County, public safety and road commission personnel were challenged to attend to the number of crashes that took place shortly after 5 a.m.
First indications there were problems came with a slide-off on M-21/Blue Water Highway near Hawley Highway. Shortly after, a call went out for a power line across the road on David Highway between Saranac and Jordon Lake Road. A slide-off was reported at that location.
A rollover crash awaited attention at the intersection of Jordan Lake Road and Grand River Avenue, but officers were busy answering a number of other crash calls, including a rollover north of Saranac on M-21 at Morrison Lake Road and a crash on M-21 at Stuble Road.
Fortunately, none of the rollovers and crashes involved injuries as of 5:45 a.m.
A number of crashes were concentrated around M-21 at Hawley Highway north of Saranac. One of those mishaps involved a state trooper, whose cruiser was rear-ended. Just north of there, a crash involving a semi and a car was reported on Hawley Highway.
In Barry County, a rollover on M-37 at Lawrence around 5:45 a.m. resulted in a person trapped in a vehicle. Later in the morning, M-37 was closed north of Middleville just south of Parmalee Road when a school bus ran off the road. Only the driver was on board, and there were no injuries.
(Weather info provided by FOX 17 Meteorologist Jon Shaner.)
