Niagara weather woes continue

(Update)

The weather has been a factor in another day of havoc on the highways. There have been numerous rollovers and spinouts on the QEW alone. It was so dangerous at one point, the OPP had to close the QEW from Niagara Falls to Fort Erie.

This tractor trailer landed on its side in the median at Sodom road when the driver lost control on ice. hours later in the same area another transport hit a truck hauling a highway sign.

Staff Sgt. Jan Idzenga, Niagara OPP: “We’re putting a lot of people at risk out here. It’s just a bad situation. The ice is not going away.”

It was so dangerous, the OPP closed the QEW from Niagara Falls to Fort Erie for a few hours. Going towards St. Catharines wasn’t much better.

A woman was rushed to hospital with a back injury when her car crashed into another on the Garden City Skyway.

From Seventh Street to Casablanca, there were numerous calls for help.

A pickup slid into the fence landing on its side. A car that took out light standard before landing backwards in the ditch.

We’re standing on the Tufford Road overpass in Lincoln. Take a look at the roadway. It’s sheer ice. Which has a lot of people demanding to know why the MTO is not here putting as much sand on the roads as possible.

Jason Matheos was lucky he wasn’t hurt when his van skated across all three lanes: “I was driving in the far left lane. I went to go make a lane change. And pretty much swerved over right into the ditch. And was going around 60.”

This was the second time he lost control.

These dark patches. The black ice. You don’t know where they are. Just caught off guard.

A lot of drivers were caught off guard. The road looked like clear pavement. But when they touched the brakes. They found out it was sheer ice.

In a 36 hour period, Niagara OPP said there were more than 300 ice related spinout and crashes. And they said they’ve never seen it this bad.

“On sheer ice, you’re not going to stop, you’re not going to slow your car. You need to slow down to the road conditions. You may see what looks like bare pavement. That’s sheer ice that you’re driving on.”

There will be a bit of relief tomorrow, as temperatures are supposed to go up to near the freezing mark.