Snow and icy conditions made travel difficult in King County

A snowplow operator suffered minor injuries when his truck slid on the ice and crashed into a ravine overnight on Mercer Island.

The storm left behind a lot of treacherous roads across King County.

Eyewitnesses say a driver in Maple Valley ran a red light, forcing another driver off the road in spectacular fashion; an incredible sight.

"Yeah," said eyewitness Heather Clark. "I was just watching TV up in my house and noticed a car coming by real quick and another white car coming up."

Clark was across the street on Witte Road.

"Went over the fence," she said. "Hit the fence."

"I was in there facing straight out this way," said Tony Barrientes, "when I heard the screeching tire."

Barrientes watched in horror from his living room, just a few feet from where the vehicle came to a rest.

"And I look over," he said. "Better than 4K. It was quite the sight. Pretty scary to see."

"I thought he'd tipped over," said Clark. "But he managed to just land straight up and down."

The driver declined to talk on camera. But he said in his attempt to avoid being hit by the car that blew through the light, he turned a bit too hard, plowed into the fence and over a retaining wall.

A snowplow on Mercer Island didn't fare much better. A neighbor, Dr. Julie Lamb, sent video of the vehicle being pulled out of a ravine on East Mercer Way, hours after it slid off the road.

Just a few yards away, a gigantic maple tree came crashing down into Craig Welch's yard.  It buried his car. But no one was in the vehicle. And it suffered mostly scratches.

"Yeah," said Welch, "it was a mess."

He was asked if the wind, the snow or a combination made the tree come down.

"I really don't know," Welch said. "It wasn't windy. So i think it was just the weight of the snow, to be honest with you."

The snow was certainly a factor in just about everything that happened. A lot of people appeared to stay off the roads. And that made it easier for the many snowplows on King County roads to work to clear the roads.

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