Accidents Galore As Motorists Slip Slide Away In First Storm

It could have been worse and it could have been better.

Depending on where you were, that might have been your reaction to the first big storm of the season that hit almost all of Ontario with a vengeance on Thursday. This one featured just about everything, starting with heavy rain, shifting to ice pellets, adding in high winds and frigid temperatures before finally turning to snow.

The bulk of those flakes started falling during the morning rush, leading to so many fender benders, cops simply lost count. At one point, the OPP declared its officers were receiving reports about an accident every 60 seconds.

Some of the causes were obvious, some weren’t. Drivers were going too fast for the conditions, while others were going slow but still ran into black ice. Many were following too close. And then there were those who refused to properly clean off their windshields so they could see where they were going.

“We had such a mild winter,” one driver complains as he tried to get the ice off his car. “And then all of a sudden…”

By the time many commuters hit the road, the worst was already underway. Accidents were everywhere during the morning commute. On Bay and Front, a Range Rover slid into a concrete pole and took out several newspaper boxes. Another car was nearly totaled after it spun out on the 427.  Those were just two of hundreds in town.

Things were even worse on the outskirts. Those coming down from Barrie found terrible driving conditions, as cottage country was hit by 17 centimetres of heavy, wet and slippery snow. “Just one second,” one motorist laments about how his day started. “Just one second, went into the ditch.”

On Highway 400 southbound near Highway 88, a van hit the skids, then hit the ditch, forcing a tow truck to come and hoist it back onto the roadway. That was an oft repeated scene, too.

But somehow in all of the mishaps, no one was seriously hurt. That sadly changed later in the day, when two accidents on the same highway left one man dead and another fighting for his life.

Back in the city, cab drivers, who normally make a killing in bad weather, were also having a rough time just going from here to there. “Getting around was not fun,” observes one dryly.

The city’s collisions centres were packed with drivers who had close encounters of the storm kind. “We’re up about 30 per cent from our normal days, on sunny dry days,” points out P.C. Bob Ellis.

Cops complain many motorists simply didn’t have their “winter legs” during the first big storm of the year and have to re-learn their driving techniques all over again. For some on Thursday, it was an expensive and time consuming lesson.