BOUNTIFUL, Utah (ABC 4 News) – Joe Johnson, the Mayor of Bountiful says the storm that sent dozens of cars sliding down 400 North was the perfect storm for complete chaos.
Johnson says heavy rain preceded a quick change to heavy snow, and any residual salt on the road washed away. “It goes from severe rain right to a snow, and now we’ve got water frozen with that snow on top of this hill.”
One by one drivers lost control on the steep hill, sliding sideways, spinning in circles, and for about a dozen, crashing.
Johnson says there were 22 snowplows on the streets for the storm. Many became paralyzed by accidents. One that showed up to plow 400 North soon became part of the mayhem when a car slid directly into it.
Rhee Braby, who caught it all on his cell phone camera, says city crews do their best on the hill.
"The plow crews get out here as quick as they can one of the reasons it got so bad this time is because the plow itself got hit."
The mayor says some involved in this slip and slide were visitors to the LDS temple at the top of the street. He says it was particularly busy that day because both the Salt Lake and Ogden temples were closed. "A lot of unfamiliar people in our city at the temple and so it's four o'clock in the afternoon, and they are all coming down and they don't know about this road."
But those who live next to it say even those who do know the road travel too fast.
Jason Richards, who lives on the corner of 400 North, said, "Relax, drive slowly, down shift, do something properly. Drive like a person when there's snow on the ground. Come on."
Braby said there were people at the top of 400 North trying to stop drivers from going down the hill but they were ignored, and the cars came down anyway
