DOVER, DE- Abandoned vehicles are creating major headaches on Dover city streets after a fierce winter storm over the weekend. Crews who were out during the storm say they saw many drivers get stuck in the ice and leave their cars behind, which slowed cleanup and made already dangerous roads even worse.
A historic winter storm swept across Delmarva, leaving a mix of weather that created thick, icy conditions in Kent County. The storm started as light, fluffy snow, then turned into sleet and rain, which froze overnight into a solid sheet of ice along neighborhood streets and roads in Dover.
Vincent Acevedo, a Dover neighbor who outside shoveling today after the storm, said conditions were nearly impossible to navigate.
"I was taking out the trash in the back, and usually, you know, snow — your foot sinks in. Not the case. It was like an ice rink."
With many neighborhood streets coated in ice, Acevedo said now is not the time to get behind the wheel.
"I haven't been out at all. We try to stay in as much as possible to avoid any accidents. There was literally no way we were getting out."
Across Dover, others took the risk — and that's where officials say the bigger problem began.
Mark Nowak, of Dover Public Works, said city crews saw vehicles on the roads during the peak of the storm, and not just stuck drivers but also abandoned cars.
"The cars that we saw out — they just shouldn't have been driving. But let's be honest, they were getting stuck in cul-de-sacs, I guess, trying to turn around or trying to go up slight inclines."
With crews responsible for clearing roughly 115 miles of roads, Nowak said abandoned vehicles slow down the cleanup, especially as crews were racing to clear streets before the ice settled in.
"The issue we have is we can't get down to a road once if they're in the middle of a cul-de-sac, we can't clean that cul-de-sac. There was one in the middle of an intersection that looked like it tried to turn it was stuck. We have to just turn around, and then we have to keep track that we have to go back to that area still once that car is removed."
The City of Dover reinforced that message on Facebook Monday, saying, "We have a lot of cars being abandoned throughout the city, making things even more difficult. As we discussed prior to the storm (and on every news outlet), ice was going to be and definitely IS the biggest issue."
Nowak said those abandoned vehicles don't just slow cleanup — they are also dangerous.
"It's dangerous for the person, and it's dangerous for us where we're dealing with icy roads. Today, we had issues with these big plow trucks sliding on the roads, and they got close to these cars. We're trying to get around them, and we don't want them getting into an accident. We don't want to damage anything. We don't want to lose a plow truck driver because of an accident. So it's just a hazard to us."
Nowak reminds drivers that if their car gets stuck, they should not just leave it in the road.
"Try to get it resolved. Just don't leave it there. If you can walk back to your house, make the phone call. It just helps us a lot."
If your vehicle gets stuck, Public Works says you should call a service like AAA or the Dover Police non-emergency line to have it safely removed from the road.