Icy roads wreak havoc in La Crosse County

The Coulee Region hasn’t had to deal with many snowy conditions this winter, but mother nature wreaked havoc Thursday morning.

Rain and freezing temperatures created a thick layer of ice, causing a number of vehicles to slide out of control.

La Crosse police officer Dustin Darling said it was a crazy couple of hours.

“It got busy in a hurry,” Darling said. “Around 9 a.m. multiple crashes started coming in, and we ended up having our entire call screen filled with crashes that were going on.”

Several sections of I90 were closed due to accidents, and in La Crosse, a light pole and a couple of signs came down.

Darling takes it as a reminder to be weather aware.

“It (black ice) is a very hard thing to see,” Darling said. “The best thing is if you see someone else in the ditch, it’s a good sign to slow down as well.”

In total, the department fielded 34 car accident complaints, with six of them being injury-related.

There were 83 crashes in La Crosse County.