Collisions on city streets, Highway 401 spike in Kingston, Ont. region during winter storm
Most area residents started Thursday by digging their vehicles out following a snowstorm that blew through the region Wednesday evening and into Thursday morning.
Snowplows were out in full force, but that didn’t stop the winter storm from wreaking havoc on the roads.
According to Kingston Police, since the snow started falling Wednesday afternoon, 15 traffic collisions were reported within the city.
“Luckily, the majority of all the collisions were either no injuries, just property damage or vehicle damage, or minor injuries,” said Sgt. Steve Koopman with the Kingston Police
Highway 401 wasn’t much better.
According to the OPP, 27 collisions were reported on Highway 401 in 24 hours since the snow began falling.
In one case, the 401 was shut down in Napanee because of a crash, but police say there were no serious injuries.
“We were fortunate enough that we didn’t experience too much in the way of road closures, but we did have Highway 401, the westbound lanes, closed in the Napanee area between County Road 4 and County Road 5 due to a collision,” said Acting Sgt. Erin Cranton with the Ontario Provincial Police.
Even though the roads were a bit messy early Thursday, that didn’t stop people from going about their day-to-day business.
“Since yesterday, it’s very difficult to drive, especially on Kingston roads. I just moved from Scarborough to here, so I feel we are not as good at cleaning the roads here,” said Kingston resident and motorist Jay Chaudhri.
Taxi driver Bruce McMurray said the road conditions were improving as the progressed.
“Now that all the cars have gone over it, everything gets really slushy so you slide a lot. But it is getting better, except for the side streets, they’re always the last ones to get done,” said McMurray.
Both Kingston and provincial police are advising drivers to slow down, leave more space between themselves and the vehicle in front of them, and allow more time to get to their destination.
by Global News
