The past few days freezing temperatures and winter precipitation have caused difficulties for Odessa motorists.
Odessa Police reported between Friday and Tuesday they’ve responded to 63 crashes and 28 assist/motorist traffic hazard calls. Calls flooded in Monday evening due to black ice forming from broken water lines at various intersections, as well.
Police responded to several ice-related crashes at the intersections of 42nd Street and Dixie Boulevard, 35th Street and Dixie Boulevard, 14th Street and Muskingum Avenue, and 42nd Street and Golder Avenue, an OPD press release said. Cpl. Steve LeSueur added that the water has spilled further down Dixie and may be affecting more intersections.
OPD is advising all drivers to avoid these locations and use alternative routes if possible.
A traffic advisory was also sent out by OPD Monday night advising drivers to stay in their lanes and not drive into oncoming traffic. LeSueur said this was sent out due to several people driving into oncoming traffic as OPD had blocked off some areas affected by broken water lines.
City of Odessa spokesperson Andrea Goodson said the city is working on repairing the damaged water lines as fast as they can, and added that Odessa has had five water line breaks since Sunday. Suspected water line breaks, evidence would be large volumes of water in the street or alley, can be reported by calling 432-335-4625, a City of Odessa press release said.
Odessa is expected to warm up somewhat over the course of the week. Acciweather.com reports a high of 49 degrees and sunny weather Wednesday and a high of 50 degrees with cloudy weather Thursday.
LeSueur said OPD also responded to 55 fireworks calls, 28 shots fired/loud noise calls, 59 disturbance calls, 98 animal control calls and made around seven driving while intoxicated arrests between Friday and Tuesday.
