By Cindy Schroeder
and William A. Weathers
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Morning rush-hour traffic on northbound Interstate 75 creeps down the "cut in the hill" in Covington after a morning snowstorm snarled traffic. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

Three employees of a Sharonville advertising firm were killed Thursday on a snow-covered stretch of Interstate 74 in Indiana when their minivan crossed the median and was broad-sided by a tractor-trailer.

A fourth person was killed in a two-car crash in Dearborn County that left another person in critical condition.

The accidents occurred as a snowstorm - whose early arrival surprised forecasters - moved into the region. The snow made a mess of Tristate roads and closed schools or prompted early dismissals.

The employees of HSR Business to Business Inc. were killed on their way to a client meeting in Indianapolis, said Richard A. Segal Jr., chief executive officer.

Indiana State Police identified the three as Barbara M. Conry-Dressman, 31, Mount Lookout; Patrick J. Cunningham, 36, of Dayton, Ohio; and Kevin J. Pfirrman, 27, of Streetsboro, Ohio.

Kevin M. Dugan, 32, of Cincinnati, also an HSR employee, suffered cuts and bruises. The driver of the truck, Gary D. Charlton, 43, of Indianapolis, broke his hand.

The state police's preliminary investigation revealed that Mr. Dugan was driving a 2002 Honda minivan west on I-74, about nine miles east of Greensburg, Ind., when he lost control of the vehicle. The minivan crossed the median onto the eastbound lanes and was struck. Greensburg is about 35 miles west of Cincinnati.

HSR suspended operations upon learning of the accident.

"God has blessed our lives with the privilege of working alongside each of these talented individuals," Mr. Segal said in a statement.

Mrs. Conry-Dressman was vice president of public relations; Mr. Pfirrman was a public relations consultant; and Mr. Cunningham was a client services executive. Mr. Dugan is a senior public relations consultant.

In the other crash, Colleen Kuntz, 74, of Brookville, Ind., was killed in a crash on U.S. 52 near I-74 in Dearborn County, Ind. She was a passenger in a westbound car that collided with an eastbound vehicle at 12:08 p.m., the Dearborn County Sheriff's Office said. Robert Kuntz, 74, also of Brookville, who was driving the car, was in critical condition at University Hospital.

The driver of the eastbound vehicle, Joseph Crowder, 30, of Harrison, Ohio, and his passenger, Harry Crowder, of Brookville, Ind., were taken to Mercy Franciscan Mount Airy Hospital. Their conditions were not available.

The snowstorm delayed or canceled several flights at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. There were numerous cancellations Thursday night of community events, including 12 Northern Kentucky high school basketball games and live racing at Turfway Park in Florence.

In one of the biggest driving headaches, Interstate 71/75 from Florence to the "cut in the hill" in Covington was a virtual parking lot for most of the morning.

"It wasn't that we didn't know (the snowfall) was coming," said Tom Schomaker, operations engineer for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet office in Northern Kentucky. "It just came quicker than anticipated. This one caught us by surprise."

Steve Hrebenach, a National Weather Service meteorologist, agreed. "We expected the snow to (start falling) by late morning, but things developed a little quicker than we thought," he said.

At the airport in Boone County, 4 inches of snow had fallen by 7 p.m.

Today's National Weather Service forecast calls for Tristate weather to be mostly cloudy with a chance of flurries.

Bob Krohman, Kenton County's director of public works, said he was keeping a road crew at the garage until midnight and more were coming in early this morning.

"It seems like Northern Kentucky got the brunt of it," said Mr. Krohman, who saw snowfalls of 3 to 4 inches in Independence.

Mr. Schomaker, who oversees snow removal on state roads and federal highways in 11 Northern Kentucky counties, said that he monitored all four Tristate television weather forecasts Wednesday night, and each called for morning flurries changing to light snow by midafternoon Thursday, with total accumulations of 1 to 3 inches.

But by 7:50 a.m. Thursday, Interstate 75 was snow-covered.

"I don't blame the forecasters," Mr. Schomaker said. "I'm just frustrated. If we know when the snow's coming, we can prepare for it. That's what we thought we were doing."

In Northern Kentucky, the Boone, Campbell and Bracken County school systems dismissed students early Thursday, as did Kings schools in southern Warren County and Bishop Fenwick High School in Middletown.

In the Walton-Verona School system in Boone County, school was called off before the buses picked up the district's 500 elementary pupils Thursday, Superintendent Bob Storer said. The district's 500 high school students were bused home about 9 a.m..

James Pilcher, Neil Schmidt and Erica Solvig contributed.

E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com