By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
Public Works crews dealing with the storm that turned the Princeton area into a winter wonderland Monday did an exemplary job, according to police, who reported that the storm caused a minimal number of car accidents and other emergencies usually associated with such weather.
Minor accidents and cases of cars sliding off the roads made up most reports that area police received by Monday afternoon, as the area remained under a National Weather Service Winter Storm Warning until 4 p.m. Around 5 or 6 inches of snow appeared to have fallen in Princeton, but predictions of 12 inches of snowfall kept commuters off the roads and schoolchildren at home as crews working in the morning hours salted, sanded, and plowed the roads, police said.
Normally busy roads like U.S. Route 1 and Washington Road were devoid of traffic even in the late afternoon hours.
Police said such conditions supported the notion that most people kept off the roads, as a response to weekend weather reports that warned people to avoid all travel during the storm.
”We didn’t really have a rush hour,” said Richard Furda, Plainsboro’s police chief. “It gave Public Works an opportunity to keep the roads clear.”
Chief Furda said commuters and vehicular traffic present an obstacle to Public Works vehicles trying to clear snow and salt roads, and the lack of traffic was a boon to the storm effort. Public Works employees were effective, he said, noting his department received a single report of a disable vehicle that turned out to be a case of a driver who pulled over to check their driving directions.
Princeton police said Public Works crews were out early and often as the storm came through the area.
Princeton Borough’s Lt. David Dudeck, contacted Monday afternoon, said conditions on most roadways were acceptable and that the department had yet to receive a report of a single accident.
Princeton Township Detective Annette Henderson said police had received reports of minor accidents, but nothing major.
”There’s no havoc being wreaked here,” she said.
Montgomery Township Lt. James Curry, who said township roads seemed clear when he got to work around 7 a.m., had only received a handful of reports about cars sliding off the road.
Longer daylight hours, which allow pavement to absorb more heat and reduce the ability of snow to stick to the road surface, may also have played a part, according to Lt. Curry.
He said “the road department got a good handle on it” and that “the roads cleared up pretty quickly.”
Clear roads in Montgomery were the result of efforts of Public Works crews that kept on top of the storm, as it slowly came through central New Jersey on Sunday and Monday, according to Public Works Superintendent Art Villano.
”We keep getting it open and cleaned up, and it keeps covering back up,” he said.
The township’s new road salting system, which uses a salt brine to coat the road surface, was ineffective during the storm, Mr. Villano said, noting the treatment laid down by Public Works crews had largely washed away by the time the snow came down Sunday night.
Alex Drummond, the director of Public Works in West Windsor Township, said his road crews were out at 8 p.m. Sunday clearing snow off of the roads in advance of the storm, which was still hitting the area Monday morning.
Swirling winds that accompanied the weather gave road crews extra work, he said.
”Currently, our biggest problem is drifting,” said Mr. Drummond. “We’re fighting drifts right now on a lot of our outlying roads.”

