SPOKANE, Wash. – When snow hit for the first time this winter, the Spokane Police Department responded to 85 collisions in just nine hours.
With the forecast for Tuesday night into Wednesday calling for eight to 12 inches of snow in Spokane, the Spokane police and fire departments are advising people to only use 9-1-1 for serious collisions.
“If we’re going to get the amount of snow they’re calling for, it’s gonna be a mess,” Senior Police Officer Daniel Strassenberg said. “If there’s any kind of injury, obviously we have to come out for that. If there’s any sort of disabled vehicles that is affecting or is a hazard to the roadway, we’d obviously have to come out for that. But anything else, if it’s a minor (collision) and the vehicles are drivable and there’s no injury, then if (the drivers) can just exchange information and move on, that’d be very helpful.”
Drivers can also report collisions they don’t call emergency services on through the Washington State Patrol website. WSP said they also want to ensure they respond to every major incident tomorrow, adding they might go into a priority response system if they’re overloaded.
“(Not calling for minor collisions is) going to help our workload out considerably,” WSP Sergeant Greg Riddell said. “That’ll allow us along with the sheriff’s department and the fire department to respond to those critical needs injury collisions and/or blocking collisions.”
