Snow shuts parts of PIP after several crashes

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Today’s morning snow squall led to a series of Palisades Interstate Parkway crashes involving eight cars altogether — one of them a police car — that at one point shut down both sides of the highway at end New Jersey end.

Photo Credit: *Cliffview Pilot File Photo*

Jerry DeMarco

01/10/2014 5:59 p.m.

Three involved injuries and three cars had to be towed, PIP Police Chief Michael Coppola told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Closures were southbound at Exit 5 and two northbound — at Fletcher Avenue/George Washington Bridge and Exit 2.

Coppola later issued a release saying that the department at 10 a.m. “received numerous 9-1-1 calls within the matter of minutes reporting multiple accidents throughout the NJ area.”

The passing storm “caused instantaneous freezing on the Parkway in various areas,” he said.

“While enroute to one accident in the Englewood Cliffs section, a patrol car lost control and struck a guard rail,” Coppola reported. “No injuries were sustained and the patrol car was driven from the scene.

Although no one was injured seriously, “the amount of damaged vehicles in the travel lanes made passing impractical and unsafe,” the chief said.

As a result, “Parkway officers with the assistance of bordering towns needed to close the Palisades Parkway southbound at interchange 5, northbound at interchange 2, and northbound entering from the George Washington Bridge and Fort Lee’s Fletcher and Lemoine [Avenues].

“The closures remained in place for approximately 30 [minutes] to an hour.”

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