Cold winter’s day

SPRINGDALE — A Rogers man died in a multi-vehicle accident Saturday evening on an icy Interstate 49, according to the Arkansas State Police.

The accident happened while freezing rain was falling at 5:43 p.m. on the Winn Creek Bridge between West Fork and Winslow.

Joseph Palasak, 57, got out of his Honda Pilot after being involved in a crash with several vehicles in the northbound lanes. He was walking toward the rear of his car when a car lost control and slid into him.

Freezing rain and drizzle continued sporadically throughout Northwest Arkansas until early Sunday afternoon.

The National Weather Service in Tulsa reported Fayetteville got almost a quarter of an inch of ice and the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport received 0.15 inches of ice. Some areas had trace amounts of snow. The temperatures didn’t get out of the 20s, and many bridges and streets remained slick all day Sunday.

The Arkansas State Police worked 39 accidents in Benton and Washington counties from Saturday evening through midday Sunday.

Sgt. Shannon Jenkins said the Benton County Sheriff’s Office worked seven accidents during the same time frame. City police officers reported 18 accidents in Springdale, eight in Rogers and 23 in Fayetteville.

In Faulkner County, a Bentonville woman died in a car crash in the rain Saturday, according to the State Police.

Guadalupe Castorena, 25, was driving a Chevrolet Cavalier east on the U.S. 64 Bypass in Vilonia and slowed to turn at a light about 5 p.m., according to a fatality report. She rear-ended a car, and a tractor-trailer hit her car and pushed it off the road. The tractor-trailer cab slid on top of her car, according to the report.

NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. WAMPLER Ice coats a barbed wire fence near Tontitown on Sunday. Freezing rain and plunging temperatures left the area frozen most of Sunday. The National Weather Service is calling for slightly warmer temperatures this week with a chance of rain.