“All of a sudden we were whirling and twirling,” she said. “We flipped over four times.”
The car ended up on its top in a ditch line along the 5900 block of the state highway known to area residents as Morning Sun Road.
“It was like the wind just picked up,” said Stumbo, a 30-year township resident.
She was able to kick out the back window and climb out. Her husband was trapped for several minutes before being rescued by emergency workers.
The Booth Road couple were taken to McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital, where they were treated for bumps and bruises and released.
The Stumbos were among many motorists in the county in wrecks along rural roads — many of them involving snow drifts.
Earlier this week, Butler County Sheriff’s dispatchers said the office responded to 63 weather-related calls for service in a 24-hour period.
In Oxford Twp. alone, since Friday afternoon authorities have responded to 30 weather-related crashes, said township police Chief Michael Goins.
“We get a lot of wind out here,” Goins said. “You can be driving down the road and it’s clear and before you know it there’s two feet of snow drifted on the road.”
There were sightings of two- and 3-foot snow drifts across some roads, according to Butler County Engineer’s Office spokesman Chris Petrocy.
In the coming days, when snow drifts continue to pose a threat, Stumbo has advice for motorists.
“Everyone needs to be careful,” she said.
Rural residents dig out
Jim Wilson spent the bulk of Saturday, Feb. 6, clearing several inches of heavy, wet snow from the lengthy horseshoe-shaped driveway of his home just outside the Butler County border in Israel Twp.
He did the same Tuesday, when Mother Nature dumped another helping of winter bliss on the region.
But as he sat gritting his teeth atop an idling cherry red tractor Thursday, Feb. 11, it was apparent he was getting sick of hauling away the snow.
“At least I have the right equipment, which makes dealing with it a little easier,” Wilson said. “It’s all just part of winter, unfortunately.”
Wilson said high winds Wednesday worked to form two-foot snow drifts all the way down his driveway, creating hazardous driving conditions right in his own front yard.
His 4-wheel-drive Ford F350 got stuck in the hip-deep snow Thursday morning.
A short time later he lost another car to the snow. But it’s all part of living in the country, according to Wilson.
“It’s really not worse than usual,” he said. “We certainly get our share of drifts out here, but it’s usually pretty safe around this stretch.”
Oxford Twp. Trustee Larry Frimerman said he could not think of a single spot within the township where a road had to be closed due to drifting. In areas with wide-open space — like the vast majority of the township — he said it is not uncommon to see snow drifting over the roadways.
“Honestly, I have heard nothing but wonderful things about our roads,” Frimerman said. “We routinely get compliments from residents telling us what a wonderful job we are doing out there.”
He attributed any problems on the roads to a combination of people driving too quickly for the conditions and scattered patches of snow and black ice.
Frimerman went so far as to insinuate township roads were better managed than their city brethren, noting how dodgy Oxford’s streets were following the weekend storm.
“They weren’t just a little bit bad, they were bad,” he said.
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