Winter weather results in 100+ wrecks Friday morning

A Virginia State Police dispatcher counted in excess of 100 wreck reports across Washington, Smyth and Wythe counties Friday morning as cold, misting rain continued to fall and freeze in places at 11 a.m.
“The majority of wrecks have been in Washington County,” where the weather seemed worse, State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Conroy said.
Around 10:30 a.m. Friday, a Smyth dispatcher was heard over emergency frequency scanners telling responders traveling south that an Interstate 81 bridge at Hall’s bottom was “a solid sheet of ice.” Reports of black ice were also heard on emergency channels.
Dawn broke Friday over a landscape dusted with snow that turned to freezing rain before 8 a.m. Traffic on Interstate 81, made light by the long New Year’s weekend for some and a likely reluctance to drive in slick conditions for others, moved at about 40 miles per hour just before 9 a.m. in response to a coating of snow and black ice.
A pickup was seen overturned in west Marion on Highway 11 south at 8:50 a.m.
Temperatures at Marion remained in the upper 20s by 11:20 a.m. and forecasts called for an afternoon high of 42 degrees under a mostly cloudy sky.
By 11 Friday morning, the frequency of wrecks was dropping, Conroy said.