"We were going slow, but it was a solid sheet of ice," Raynes said. "I started sliding and fishtailing and then I had no choice. We were in the median. It flipped on its side, then bounced back up. It was really, really super slick."
There were 18 traffic mishaps, all non-injury, reported in Boyle County between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. "That's roughly six accidents an hour. That's a lot," said Danville Police Sgt. Todd Davis.
Police dispatchers in Lancaster, Stanford, Liberty and Harrodsburg also reported multiple single-vehicle incidents, most of them involving cars that slid off the road, but no major injury accidents.
"I think when the first downpour of freezing rain hit us, even though we knew it was coming, it apparently took a lot of others off guard," said Ronnie Dobson of Lincoln County's 911 center.
Dobson said most roads in Lincoln were iced over at some point Thursday, but they often appeared to drivers that they were only wet.
"We're really fortunate, though, that all the accidents were minor, and that no emergency personnel got hurt. Neither did any drivers," said Dobson, adding that calls finally slowed down about 11 p.m.
Casey school bus hit ice on Chelf Ridge
Luck also was with 24 students aboard a Casey County school bus that was unable to stop on a flat but icy stretch of Chelf Ridge Road and wound up with a wheel in the ditch.
No one was injured, and the bus was not damaged in the incident, which occurred about 12:30 p.m., said transportation clerk Gail Ware. Another bus came and delivered the students safely home, she said.
"It was a very minor thing, but we were very lucky considering how slick the roads got before everyone got home," Ware said.
All area schools and several businesses shut down early Thursday in an effort to give people a chance to get home before things got nasty.
Boyle County road crews got to work ahead of the storm, starting about 9:30 a.m. to spread salt on county roads in advance of school buses. All buses completed their routes safely, said county engineer Duane Campbell.
Road crews were back at it again later in the afternoon, as the roads started to freeze over again.
Salt trucks in Lincoln County also were busy. Conversations between drivers overheard on the police scanner indicated that Black Pike near Moreland was especially treacherous. A few vehicles, including a John Deere tractor, slid off the road while trying to climb a hill, reported one truck driver, who was having his own troubles.
"There's a half-inch of ice on the road. I'm all over the place right now. I can't get no traction to do nothing right now," the driver said.
