Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1960-02-18
In County from P. !
Sled Mishaps
Iniure Many
from P. !

ruptured spleen.
Five of the 80 children treated
at Suburban Hospital were ad.
mitted, two of them in serious
condition.. Both were 12.year.
old girls. A hospital spokesman
said one suffered a ruptured
kidney and the other fractured
pelvis.
Hospital officials said they
thought that Mondays large
number of mishaps was the re.
suit of snow-closed schools and
the fact that parents had to go
to work and were unable to SUI.
pervise their children.
Neither hospital said they re-
ceived many sled victims SUM-
day, when parents were home
and auto traffic was light. AL
most all the accidents occurred
in the heavily populated por-
tons of the County, Rockville,
southwark.
The daughter of the county's
traffic engineering chief was
among those treated at Subur-
ban Hospital. She was Janet
Williams, II, daughter of Mr..
and Mrs. Earl C. Williams, jr.,
of 308 Great Falls rd., Rockville.
Williams said his daughter
suffered five-inch cash on her
left cheek when her sled scraped
by a low hanging tree limb on
South St, Rockville.
At the same time, Williams
said the County has no regula.
tons that control shedding on
streets. "Our policy is not to
block off streets, as they do in
the District, because if we did,
we'd have to have people out
there to supervise-and we Just
don't have enough personnel to
do the job," he said.
He added that his office got
a number of requests Monday to
barricade streets so children
could coast down hills, but he
had to refuse.
He pointed out, however, that
20 slopes at County recreation
centers, golf courses, schools,
etc., have been set aside for
sliding. The sites were approved
by the County Council on De-
cember 16, 1858.
The Council noted at that time
that county streets and roads
should be reserved for emer-
gency vehicles, fuel trucks,
sanding crews, etc. and that it
was dangerous to slide on
streets and roads.
All of the sites have been used
by children this year, with no
Injuries other than minor cuts,
bruises, etc.
Warned last Saturday of what
to expect, county officials had
seevral hours of daylight to or
ganize a taskforce that num-
bered $50 men in the County.
They used road graders and
trucks equipped with snow
9plows, tons of sand and other
vehicles-all equipped wit h
radio. BY the time ]. o. Harvey
considered the job in hand SUM-
day, all main roads and most of
the side roads were clear.
NBut Harvey Chief of Bureau
Operations for the Department
of Public Works, bad a surprise
waiting for HIM! 1t came in the
form of wind gusts up to 40
miles an hour.
Most of the side roads North
of Gaithersburg were drifted
over again and all were not
cleared until shortly before dark
Monday.
Two major factors hampered
Harvey: cars abandoned on road
shoulders and the consistency
of the snow itself.
Cars left partially on the road
force plows to swing wide
around them, narrowing the
roads cleared width.
Rain and sleet mixed with the
snow tended to lamp down
layers as they built up, with the
result a mass twice as hard to
scrape aside or pick up as nor
NAL snow.
When Sundays winds dried
out the surface of the snow, it
drifted freely, Harvey said.
Some drifts built up to eight
feet, he added. About so roads
had to be recleared, he said.
Harvey got only four hours of
sleep between 3 pm. Saturday
and Monday evening. But he
said snow clearing operations
went smoothly, especially the
radio control of all equipment.
AS in most snow storms in
the county, the wind-driven
snow came from the West. AS a
result, roads running East and
West were relatively clear by
virtue Of the winds securing
action.
But North-South roads filled
up quickly like so m any
troughs, where there were no
protective snow fences.
blair Class Partv