What the heck happened on Main Street in Burlington? The 1st snow meant slippery business.

Ryan Mercer | Burlington Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption WATCH: Snow makes Main St. mess in Burlington Slick snow and a lack of winter tires made a mess on Main Street in Burlington on Friday morning, Nov. 8, 2019.

First, there was the dark-blue Hyundai that skidded across Main Street after blowing the red light at South Union Street, nearly colliding with the curb.

Luckily, there was no oncoming traffic just before the six o'clock hour Friday.

The car revved its engine, front tires whirring in vain to find traction. An hour later, it had managed to make it as far as South Williams Street using a zig-zag tactic to find a grip.

Then, around 6 a.m., there was the tractor trailer that had gotten stuck just below South Willard Street. And the Green Mountain Transit bus, spinning its back tires, wasn't far behind. A school bus managed to creep past them both, but just barely.

As the snow kept coming down, compacting into a slick, icy surface on Main Street, it became brutally clear which cars had snow tires... and which ones did not.

By 7 a.m., dozens of accidents had been reported across the city. A Burlington police officer responding to a two-car crash just below Summit Street nearly lost his footing twice as he got out of his cruiser to check on both drivers.

"The car was just sideways in the middle of the road," a driver said, who wished not to be identified. She'd T-boned the driver-side door, unable to stop as she came down the hill. But both drivers were OK, they said.

Several men struggled to keep their scooters upright and, after a minute or two, wisely gave up, pushing them back into a driveway by South Union Street.

At one point, a private salt truck pulled out of driveway it had just plowed and slowly creeped back and forth across Main Street by the tractor trailer, an officer briefly stopping traffic as it did so. After a liberal salting, the tractor trailer found purchase and managed to slowly crawl up the hill.

All the while, Main Street became a three-to-four-lane road, with people creating their own path to get around stuck cars. Those without snow tires, spinning or swerving in place, generally stayed close to the curb and cars with snow tires made their way up the center.

Stop lights were not forgiving and created pockets of stranded cars, some of which eventually opted for a left turn at South Willard or Summit Streets to try their luck elsewhere.

From 6 a.m. to just past 7 a.m., what wasn't seen on Main Street was any kind of city plow or salt trucks, aside from the Good Samaritan.

Be an active part of our community The Burlington Free Press journalists work hard to provide subscribers with accurate, relevant news.



Become a digital-only subscriber or get a print and digital subscription at offers.BurlingtonFreePress.com/specialoffer.



Thanks for your support of local journalism.





Contact Ryan Mercer at rmercer@freepressmedia.com or at 802-343-4169. Follow him on Twitter @ryanmercer1 and facebook.com/ryan.mercer1.