Storm causes few mishaps in Callaway

Two vehicles sustain damage Thursday morning in an accident where ice and snow was a contributing factor. According to the Fulton Police Department, a 1986 Ford F150 driven by Randall L. Ward, 49, of Columbia, was driving on Tennyson Road when it dropped a wheel off the side of the roadway. The driver overcorrected and slid sideways into the path of an oncoming 1995 Lincoln Navigator driven by William R. Wilcox, 46, of New Bloomfield, police stated. Both men were taken by ambulance to University Hospital in Columbia with moderate injuries, FPD reported. Callaway County Ambulance District, FPD and the Fulton Fire Department all responded to the accident. Fulton police responded to several accident calls due to the ice Thursday, the first one reported at 4:30 a.m.
Two vehicles sustain damage Thursday morning in an accident where ice and snow was a contributing factor. According to the Fulton Police Department, a 1986 Ford F150 driven by Randall L. Ward, 49, of Columbia, was driving on Tennyson Road when it dropped a wheel off the side of the roadway. The driver overcorrected and slid sideways into the path of an oncoming 1995 Lincoln Navigator driven by William R. Wilcox, 46, of New Bloomfield, police stated. Both men were taken by ambulance to University Hospital in Columbia with moderate injuries, FPD reported. Callaway County Ambulance District, FPD and the Fulton Fire Department all responded to the accident. Fulton police responded to several accident calls due to the ice Thursday, the first one reported at 4:30 a.m.

A number of drivers skidded off of roadways and there were several accidents, but overall Callaway County officials said the area got off pretty lightly when the second winter storm of the season dropped 1-3 inches of snow over a thin glaze of ice.

"We had 20 weather-related calls, which really isn't that bad," said Shelly Anderson, director off 911 joint communications at the Callaway County Emergency Operations Center. "If school hadn't been cancelled there would have been a lot more - with our first snow we had about 100 calls."

Maj. Roger Rice, assistant chief of the Fulton Police Department, said his department responded to six accidents - one of them serious - and a number of slide-offs.

"We've been lucky," Rice said. "That's less than we had with the last one. People are slowing down."

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.