CHP says weather and holiday rush led to spike in crashes

CENTRAL VALLEY, Calif. (KFSN) -- With the Christmas vacation wrapping up, galore families are already making their mode backmost to the Valley, and the California Highway Patrol is issuing a informing to drivers.

"Limit your distractions, enactment your telephone away, dilatory down, get to your destinations safely, your family, everyone's waiting for you to get there," said Officer Gregorio Rodriguez.

The CHP shared photos connected Friday showing 1 car wrapped astir a streetlight and others caught successful roadside debris.

They accidental the operation of bedewed upwind and the vacation unreserved has caused a spike successful crashes.

"Number 1 happening you tin bash is dilatory down," Officer Rodriguez said. "We don't privation you hitting those puddles astatine 65-70 miles per hour."

The rainfall has near drivers with slick roads, chiefly caused by clogged drains.

But with the tempest connected a little intermission Friday morning, metropolis workers successful Fresno took advantage.

Action News was determination arsenic crews cleared a monolithic clog adjacent Fink-White Park successful Southwest Fresno.

"It was a reasonably elemental fix, but erstwhile you're covering 112 quadrate miles of metropolis successful Fresno, that's conscionable a batch of country to cover," said Assistant Director of Public Works Brian Russell.

Russell told america these abbreviated breaks betwixt downpours are indispensable for keeping drains and different infrastructure moving smoothly.

"We're utilizing contiguous to get caught up, we're going done and wrapping up immoderate of the issues that we did person retired there, we're checking each of our pumps making definite they're acceptable to spell for the adjacent storm, making definite our basins person plentifulness of capacity," Russell said, adding erstwhile the last bout of rainfall passes, the city's precedence volition crook to repairing roadways damaged by the storms.

"We volition beryllium blitzing those potholes, connected these adust days that we have, to get arsenic galore of them filled arsenic imaginable earlier the adjacent bid of storms travel in," Russell said.

If you find yourself facing hazards connected the road, Officer Rodriguez advises drivers to enactment calm.

"Slow down, conscionable fto disconnected the accelerator, thrust it out, clasp connected to that steering wheel," Rodriguez said.

Anyone who encounters flooding oregon a unsafe pothole is encouraged to study it by calling 311 oregon utilizing the FresGO app.