While children all across Logan County were having a great time playing in the six-plus inches of snow over the weekend, it wasn't all fun and games for those working to keep the roads clear.

Employees of the Logan County Roads Department went to work early Saturday morning to begin clearing the snow that began falling late Friday evening.

“We grated some on Friday, but we knew the big snow was coming that night,” said Paul Lyne of the Logan County Roads Department.. “It's better and safer to wait until the morning rather than being out in the dark keeping the roads cleared.”

Logan County had two tractors and three graters on the roads for pretty much the whole day and put in approximately 48 extra hours of work.

“The snow knocked off the road real so we were able to grate it with some success,” Lyne said. “As far as salt, we used it sparingly - we just do the hills primarily. But we did have real good success at keeping the roads cleared.”

According to Judy Toombs of the Logan County Emergency Communication Center, only 21 accidents were reported during the winter weather and only five of those crashes involved injuries to either passengers or drivers.

That number was fairly low considering the amount of snow that was dumped on the region.

“Our state, county and city street departments got out early and that made a big difference,” Toombs said. “They really worked hard and did a great job keeping the roads cleared.”

Toombs said the majority of accidents occurred Friday evening as motorists were rushing out to get any last-minute necessities from the grocery store or making their way home from work.

“Most of the accidents occurred during the evening in the city on Friday night,” she said. “A lot of restaurants and businesses closed early and that helped keep the number of accidents down as well.”

The timing of the snow also helped keep accidents down and lessen the workload on the roads departments.

Since the snow came Friday night, there was not as big of a rush to get it cleared off by the next morning.

“Occasionally we'll go out during the night if its during the week and we know people are going to be getting out early and going to work,” Lyne said.

IT was also fortunate that there was little ice associated with the storm.

“When you're talking about an ice occurrence, there's not much you can do with it,” Lyne said. “The storm we had a couple of weeks ago had a lot of ice and there was more accidents because of that.”

Toombs agreed.

“A lot of times with the black ice, people don't know it's there,” she said. “With the snow, people usually tend to just stay home when they don't have to be out.”