Post last updated at 6:33 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1:
Dozens of crashes were reported Monday and some Lawrence Transit routes were delayed or paused throughout the day because of snowy road conditions.
“Teams pre-treated bridges and elevated surfaces ahead of the snowfall and are currently plowing and treating priority routes to keep emergency, transit, and main travel corridors as safe as possible,” according to a city statement.
Snowfall continued well into the afternoon Monday, and roads were slick and dangerous.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office assisted with one injury crash “where medics checked three people who did not need to be transported from the scene,” according to DGSO spokesperson George Diepenbrock. That involved three vehicles on Kansas Highway 10 at mile marker 16 between Lawrence and Eudora.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
In another, just outside northwest Lawrence at East 1100 and North 1750 roads, one person suffered minor injuries and was taken to LMH Health, Diepenbrock said.
From 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday, DGSO also helped with 11 noninjury crashes, including four on K-10 on the southeast side of Lawrence between Louisiana Street and the Haskell Avenue exit and one on the South Lawrence Trafficway ramp at Clinton Parkway, Diepenbrock said. They also assisted motorists on 26 calls.
Support local news
Please subscribe to support The Lawrence Times so we can keep doing this work.
“It has been busy for deputies this morning. Deputies say this activity seems typical for the first snow of the season and the first day back from Thanksgiving break with more traffic due to school, the universities and people heading into work,” Diepenbrock said.
“We would ask people to be patient, take extra time this morning and for the evening commute and always buckle up,” he continued. “Especially if people are in heavy traffic with multiple vehicles around, it’s best to be slow and cautious.”
The Lawrence Police Department posted on social media around 10:30 a.m. that “During the past three hours, LKPD has been called to respond to at least 30 non-injury crashes, more than a dozen motorist assists, and at least one crash with minor injuries involving at least 6 vehicles including a patrol unit.”
In an afternoon update, LPD posted that “Since 6:45 this morning, we have been called to between 6 and 8 non-injury crashes every hour – along with numerous motorist assist calls. Officers also responded to an injury accident. The injuries were minor.”
And Lawrence Transit had “Significant delays across all routes due to weather,” according to an early morning update to passengers. “Many routes have paused in place. Safety is our utmost concern.”
Routes 1-12 were paused from the morning until around 2 p.m., and KU routes, 30-53, ended at 2 p.m. as campus was closed for the afternoon.
People can download the Lawrence Transit app in the App Store or on Google Play to check where their buses are.
In Eudora, a school bus slid into a ditch on 1300 Road Monday morning, according to a statement from Superintendent Stu Moeckel.
“We want to assure our families and community that all students and staff are safe, and there were no injuries,” he wrote. “We are incredibly grateful for the quick action and expertise of our bus driver and the entire Eudora Schools transportation team. Their professionalism ensured our students remained calm and cared for throughout the situation. … Students were quickly moved to a warm bus and safely transported to school.”
A winter weather advisory was in effect for Lawrence and much of Kansas through 6 p.m. Monday. Lawrence received about 4 inches of snow total, according to the National Weather Service.
See severe weather resources and information on how to check conditions of roads you need to travel below.
If local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat — get the latest news from the Times delivered to your inbox:
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Severe weather resources
Evergy outages:
• Check the status of power outages on the Evergy outage map, outagemap.evergy.com.
• Report a power outage at evergy.com/report-outage, or call 800-544-4857.
• For down powerlines, call Evergy’s emergency line, 800-383-1183, if above-ground lines are arcing or making contact with trees or vegetation. Call 911 immediately if overhead power lines are on the ground or a fire starts. Do not go near the line.
National Weather Service local office (Topeka):
• Find the latest weather forecast info and severe weather advisories for the Lawrence area at this link.
• In the event of rapidly changing severe weather, such as tornadoes, the NWS posts frequent updates on Twitter, @NWSTopeka. You do not need a Twitter account to see tweets from NWS.
• NWS is also on Facebook, facebook.com/NWSTopeka.
• Call 785-234-2592 to hear the forecast.
Douglas County Emergency Management:
• Follow @DgCoEM on Twitter or Douglas County, KS- Emergency Management on Facebook, facebook.com/dgcoem.
• Sign up to receive emergency alerts at dgcoks.org/emalerts.
• Find lots of tips on severe weather and other emergency preparedness on DgCoEM’s website at douglascountyks.org/emergency-management.
• Report storm damage (for non-emergencies only, and after storm danger has passed) by calling the nonemergency dispatch line at 785-843-0250 or 785-832-7509.
City of Lawrence snow info:
• The city has snow information and a map at lawrenceks.org/snow that shows information about road conditions and where snowplows have been. The city typically begins snow and ice control for residential roadways when 2 or more inches of snowfall or icing occurs.
Highway conditions beyond Lawrence:
• KanDrive, an app and website from the Kansas Department of Transportation, has info on highway conditions statewide. KanDrive is available online at KanDrive.gov, and its app is available for download free on the App Store and Google Play.
Air quality:
• Check the current air quality index in Lawrence and elsewhere through AirNow, airnow.gov.
This post is by the Lawrence Times news team.
If you have news tips, questions, comments, concerns, compliments or corrections for our team, please reach out and let us know what’s on your mind. Email us at Hello@LawrenceKSTimes.com (don’t forget the KS!), or find more contact info and a quick contact form at LawrenceKSTimes.com/contact.
Follow us so you won’t miss the local news that matters most to you:
Latest Lawrence news:
August Rudisell/Lawrence Times
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
