TweetGRAND RAPIDS -- Icy roads and highways caused dozens of crashes and slowed traffic to a crawl throughout West Michigan.
In Ottawa County alone, police were responding to more than 30 slideoffs, crashes, rollovers and other incidents in from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
"There are accidents everywhere," an Ottawa County dispatcher said. The same is true in Kent County, a dispatcher said.
"It's just really icy and slippery, and it's across the board on every freeway," said Chris Eubanks of the Grand Rapids MDOT office. "There are lots of slideoffs and it's slow going everywhere."
Eubanks said eastbound I-196 was at a crawl near 44th Street at 6:30 p.m.
It took one driver an hour to go from downtown Grand Rapids to the I-96 Walker exit, where traffic was being diverted because of a freeway crash.