Morning Snowfall Causes Major Delays, Minor Accidents
A flurry of winter weather on Wednesday morning, December 6, caused significant travel delays and several minor accidents on main roadways in and around Bourne.
Light overnight snowfall carried on through the early afternoon that day, which resulted in a number of traffic backups and minor crashes in several areas across the Upper Cape, including the Bourne Bridge, Sandwich Road, Scenic Highway and along Route 25 in Bourne/Plymouth and Wareham.
The Bourne Police Department issued a statement at 8:04 AM via Facebook, urging drivers to use caution on the slick, snow-dusted roads.
The department further advised that a minor accident at the East Rotary and a disabled bus on the Bourne Bridge had "snarled traffic" on Scenic Highway. The Bourne Bridge was closed for a short time in order for MassDOT crews to treat the roadway, but residual traffic reportedly persisted well after its reopening.
"Please remember," the statement said, "making a U-turn on Scenic Highway is not only very dangerous, it is also illegal. The danger of these U-turns is [exacerbated] by the snowy road conditions, which make it difficult for vehicles to stop when they are not expecting a vehicle that is making a three-point turn to be blocking the travel lane."
Several residents reported traffic-related complaints on BPD's Facebook page, including severely delayed school buses and hourlong traffic standstills in the areas of the Bourne Rotary, Buzzards Bay and Sandwich Road.
Other reported incidents included a single-car crash and an overturned truck on Route 25. Additional details on those incidents were not immediately available at the time of this writing.