Why you really, really should stay off the roads Saturday

Many people who took to the roads wound up off the roads — after braving dangerous conditions despite the urging of everyone from Gov. Christie to meteorologist Dan Zarrow to stay home.

Even Ocean County Sheriff Mike Mastronardy ran into trouble on the road. As he helped pull a driver who ran off Route 530 in Berkeley Township, his four-wheel drive SUV went off the side of the road as well. A township sanitation truck wound up pulling both vehicles.

"The roads are completely impassable. All of them. Do not go out. YOU WILL GET STUCK. Let the plows do their jobs," tweeted Mastronardy. Our officers are out with multiple vehicles that thought they could make it. They failed. Do not make us waste our resources on poor decisions. This is no joke.

State Police said that as of 1 p.m., they had responded to 222 crashes and aided 868 motorists

New Jersey Fast Traffic's Bernie Wagenblast, who has been covering New Jersey traffic for nearly 40 years, said "this storm ranks among the worst for traffic, but unlike some of the worst there is no travel ban in New Jersey."

Wagenblast found it "highly unusual" that the Port Authority's crossings were closed down because of the blizzard, as part of a New York City travel ban.

"This has happened only a handful of times," Wagenblast said.

He did not find one road to be any worse than others, but said "local streets are probably the worst since they get less attention from the plows. Most of the accidents have been minor. Most people are going too slow to have a serious crash."

That wasn't true everywhere. By mid-Saturday, at least a dozen people had been killed by the multi-state blizzard.

"Earlier this afternoon we had an overturned car on the southbound GSP in Waretown," Wagenblast said. "(You) Have to wonder what that driver was doing."