As of 4 p.m., troopers had been dispatched to 356 crashes and aided 462 motorist since midnight, according to Trooper Alejandro Goez, a spokesman with the New Jersey State Police. Motorist aids include anything from flat tires to mechanical problems or spinouts.
That number had increased dramatically since noon, when police reported 56 crashes and 102 assists.
Fortunately, none of the crashes seemed to seriously injure anyone on the roads.
“As right now, we don’t have anything” serious, he said. “Normally during snow storms, there aren’t any serious crashes, due to reduced speeds.”
Gov. Phil Murphy said “the worst, unfortunately, is still yet to come” Wednesday afternoon, and urged people to stay off the slippery roads.
He declared a state of emergency Tuesday night, but that did not include a travel ban.
The storm began picking up around lunch and is expected to continue into the evening commute. It could drop as much as two feet of snow in Sussex County, northern Passaic County and parts of Morris County, where it’s expected to hit the hardest.
The window for the heaviest snow is forecast between 3 and 6 p.m., when snow could fall at rates as fast as 3 inches per hour.
Amanda Hoover can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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