Despite salt shortages, study shows drop in suburban winter collisions

It's hard when the temperatures are in the 90s to think back to those dire warnings we heard all winter: Drive carefully because there's less ice-melting salt on the roads.

However, despite that much-publicized salt shortage, many suburban police departments responded to fewer automobile accidents this past winter than a year earlier, a Daily Herald survey showed.

The study, which examined records from 25 randomly chosen police departments, compared accidents reported between December 2007 and March 2008 to those from between December 2008 and March 2009. For nearly every department surveyed, the total number of traffic accidents declined.

For example, accidents fell by about 12 percent in Libertyville, more than 32 percent in Bartlett and nearly 10 percent in St. Charles, statistics show.

Did suburban public works crews' efforts really get the job done, even though salt was rationed and shifts were limited in many towns?

Did motorists, aware of the salt shortages and snow-slick roads, drive more safely?

Or should we thank Mother Nature, as snow levels in some suburbs were lower this past winter?

All are plausible explanations, but traffic experts said a single, specific cause is impossible to pinpoint.

"The causation of crashes is a pretty esoteric science," said Roy Lucke, director of research for the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety. "It's really hard to get a handle on that."

The number of winter crashes is important this summer because towns are weighing those figures as they decide now how much salt to purchase for this winter.

Salt was costly

Skyrocketing prices prompted, in part, by the previous winter's heavy snowfall led some suburbs to order less road salt than usual in 2008. With less salt on hand, towns reduced where and how often they salted streets.

Some local governments - such as Campton Township in Kane County and Grant Township in Lake County - also mixed sand, brine, beet juice or other additives with the salt to extend the supply.

The recession prompted further cuts. Many towns reduced plowing and salting frequency to trim overtime costs.

"We reduced our overtime by 2,000 hours, which in this economy is huge," Mundelein Public Works Director Ken Miller said.

You'd think the changes would've resulted in more crashes, but the opposite seems to be the case across the suburbs.

Crash reports fell by nearly 14 percent in Elgin, more than 23 percent in Lombard, 19 percent in Streamwood and 1 percent in Vernon Hills, the Daily Herald survey showed.

Of the 25 departments contacted, the number of accidents increased for only three: Naperville, Palatine and Waukegan.

Lombard Deputy Police Chief Dane Cuny believes reduced salting might have actually helped keep bumpers pristine.

Drivers move slower on roads thick with snow, Cuny said, whereas streets with a light coating of snow have more crashes because motorists are moving faster and don't realize the lanes are slick.

"When you get a foot of snow on the ground, it's dead," said Cuny, whose officers received about 23 percent fewer crash reports this past winter than a year earlier. "We find we get a lot of crashes when you get a real light snow and the temperatures are right - and it almost turns to ice on the street."

Mundelein's Miller credited Mother Nature with his town's 7.5 percent drop in accidents. His crews responded to three snowfalls of 6 inches or more this past winter - half as many as the previous year. Less snow fell in other areas, too. At O'Hare International Airport, 50 inches fell compared to 60 the winter before.

"We were happy about that," Miller said. "It certainly does cut down on how many calls we get (and) how many hours we had to be out there."

Buffalo Grove police Sgt. Scott Kristiansen credited his town's nearly 8 percent drop in wintertime accidents to his department's reputation for being tough on drunken drivers, speeders and other traffic scofflaws.

"Buffalo Grove was known as Bustalo Grove," Kristiansen said.

People have changed their driving behavior in the village because of the ticket-happy officers, Kristiansen said, and it's resulted in fewer crashes year-round.

"We're at 20-year lows," he said.

Economic factors

Beth Mosher, spokeswoman for AAA Chicago, credited the bad economy for helping to reduce traffic accidents.

Nationally, crashes were down throughout 2008 from a year earlier, she said, because fewer people were on the roads. Even though gas prices had dropped below $2 a gallon by the end of the year, motorists were driving less to conserve gas and money, she said.

The rising unemployment rate also meant fewer people driving to and from work this past winter.

"That's when the economy really started to bottom out," Mosher said.

Some financially strapped motorists might not have reported accidents to keep their insurance companies in the dark, Northwestern's Lucke said.

"People are becoming much more aware of the longer-term costs of reported crashes," he said. "The number of minor crashes reported to police always is an uncertain number."

So what does this winter hold?

Even the best meteorologists can't accurately forecast how much snow will fall, and no one can predict how many motorists will get into accidents. It's already pretty clear, however, that road-salt prices will be dramatically lower than last year.

Mundelein's Miller said he's paying $55 a ton now, down from $138 a ton a year ago.

Despite the price drop, Miller plans to buy roughly the same amount of salt - 1,800 tons - as last year. That stockpile got the job done, he said, and he hopes it will again.

"You hate to just cross your fingers," said Mount Prospect police spokesman Bill Roscop, whose town recorded a 7 percent drop in traffic crashes this past winter. "We have to continue to work aggressively to keep the roadways as safe as possible."

Department Crashes (12-07-3-08) Crashes (12/08-3/09) Arlington Hts. 1,195 1,139Bartlett 618 418Buffalo Grove 462 427Cook Co. sheriff 1,512 1,496Des Plaines 1,410 1,203DuPage Co. sheriff 869 805 Elgin 1,578 1,385Hoffman Estates 719 673Lake Co. sheriff 1,762 1,579 Libertyville 494 433Lincolnshire 211 194Lombard 594 456McHenry Co. sheriff 856 710Mount Prospect 715 664Mundelein 385 356Naperville 1,604 1,788Palatine 817 821Round Lake Beach 309 309Round Lake Park* 68 34Schaumburg 1,334 1,199St. Charles 611 552Streamwood 427 346Vernon Hills 640 632Waukegan 916 929* NOTE: Round Lake Park Police Department was the Round Lake Park-Hainesville Police Department until early 2008. Hainesville now has its own police department.? 512325The Lake County Department of Transportation salt dome facility in Libertyville.Paul Valade/Daily Herald file photo 512334A Kane County sheriff's deputy gives a thumbs-up to a salt-filled snowplow as it arrives at Square Barn and Huntley roads in Gilberts.Christopher Hankins/Daily Herald file photo 512193Accidents like this one on Route 83 in Bensenville happened with less frequency last winter, despite salt shortages.daily herald file photo 512345Salt trucks travel down Butterfield Road in Libertyville as snow falls from a winter storm.Paul Valade/Daily Herald file photo 512321A large pile of road salt sits outside a dome at an IDOT facility at Ela Road and Route 12 in Lake Zurich.PAUL VALADE/Daily Herald file photo