Freezing rain causes big problems for drivers
Posted December 30, 2011 6:54 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After a challenging and slippery morning commute that saw hundreds of accidents around the GTA, more wild weather caused traffic chaos on Friday night.
Roads were especially slippery in Pickering and Oshawa, where salters were working overtime to assure safe driving conditions.
Environment Canada issued a freezing rain warning for Toronto, with periods of precipitation hitting the city around the supper-hour. Between three to six millimetres of rain is expected before the system moves off to eastern Ontario later Friday night.
Click here for the latest forecast.
The OPP received more than 600 calls between midnight and the end of the lighter-than-normal morning rush Friday, mostly due to the slippery conditions on the highways, including a crash on the express lanes of Highway 401 that sent a woman to hospital with serious injuries.
A crash involving two tractor-trailers and a car blocked several lanes on the eastbound express lanes of the 401 at Yonge Street around 5:30 a.m.
A woman was trapped in her car after the accident and was later taken to hospital with serious, but non life-threatening injuries.
“There’s really no excuse. People have just got to learn when there is weather like we are seeing … they’ve got to slow down and drive to the conditions they’re faced with,” OPP Sgt. Dave Woodford said.
“Some people are in just too much of a hurry.”
One person was reportedly taken to hospital after another, two-vehicle crash on the eastbound 401 near Whites Road in Pickering.
And a car ended up on its roof when the driver lost control on the Highway 400 off-ramp at Finch Avenue around 1 a.m. Slick roads are believed to have played a role in that accident.
The driver wasn’t seriously hurt.
