A fistful of smash-ups caused by last weekend’s snowfall has police urging drivers to slow down.
About four to five cm of snow dusted the St. Albert and Sturgeon County region last Saturday, says Environment Canada meteorologist Brian Proctor. Much of it melted and then froze as soon as it hit the ground, which was still warm from the above-zero temperatures the previous week.
The result was collisions everywhere as the streets turned slick with ice. St. Albert RCMP responded to about 15 different collisions in the city on Saturday alone, said Sgt. Jeff Jacobson – about 13 more than they’d get on a typical day,
“Definitely an increase in collisions on that particular day.”
Most of these smash-ups happened between 8 a.m. and noon, Jacobson said.
One involving several vehicles happened at about 9 a.m. at the intersection of Liberton Drive and McKenny Avenue, just west of the downtown Sobeys, he continued. First, a Volkswagen Jetta and a Ford Edge SUV knocked into each other. After the Edge pulled over, a Ford F150 pickup slid into it. A Mazda A3I sedan then slid into the pickup, sending it into a fire hydrant.
The driver of the Jetta was examined for injuries on scene and released, Jacobson said. All four vehicles were driveable after the crash. Icy conditions were definitely a factor and this and the other collisions.
The county was much quieter in terms of collisions last weekend with just four reported as of Monday, said Morinville RCMP Sgt. Mark Mathias. Two happened along county roads, while one each happened in Morinville and Gibbons. None involved injuries.
“Having four collisions is a very good thing,” Mathias said, as he’d usually expect up to 20 on a long weekend after a major snowfall. It’s possible that there were more collisions yet to be reported, he added.
Last weekend’s snowfall happened when warm moist air from the Rockies ran into a mass of cold Arctic air currently entrenched over central Alberta, Proctor said. Areas west of Edmonton got dumped on, with freezing rain coating the Drayton Valley region and Grande Prairie buried under 21 cm of snow.
“We actually managed to escape fairly luckily from the majority of the weather that happened over the last weekend.”
City sand trucks hit the road early Saturday to sand and salt streets to break up the ice, said city municipal operations supervisor Derek Dallorto.
Plows went to work Sunday as the snow passed the two-to-five centimetre mark, clearing most arterials and collector roads as of Monday, Dallorto said. They did not do residential roads, as the city’s snow clearing policy says that those aren’t cleared unless the city has at least 12 cm of packed snow. Crews also cleared sidewalks downtown in preparation for Tuesday’s Remembrance Day parade.
Dallorto reminded residents to stay off ponds and the Sturgeon River even if they look frozen, as the ice is not thick enough to support a person’s weight yet. Crews will put up warning signs at local water bodies later this week.
Proctor said it should be clear but cold for the rest of the week, with sunny skies and temperatures as low as -23 C predicted.
Jacobson and Mathias advised drivers to slow down and give themselves more stopping distance under these icy conditions.
And get some winter tires, Mathias added.
“They really do make a major impact.”
