Two police officers were among the multiple people injured as treacherous road conditions resulted in more than 400 reported crashes, early Wednesday in southwestern Ontario.
A mixture of wet and heavy snowfall, coupled with low visibility, made for dangerous driving conditions overnight and during the morning commute, with meteorologists forecasting more snow into the evening.
One notable crash involved two police cruisers being hit from behind while the officers were stopped to investigate a separate collision on Highway 403, east of London. Both officers were sent to hospital with minor injuries, police said.
“The roadways are snow and ice covered. You need to slow down, and when you see flashing lights, by law, you need to slow down and move over. If you can’t move over safely, you have to reduce your speed,” OPP Sgt. Ed Sanchuk said.
“This is just common sense.”
Police said they were called to crash sites across the region, from Middlesex and Oxford, to Haldimand and Elgin counties. Dozens of roads were closed, including at times sections of the 400-series highways.
At lunchtime, the westbound lanes of Highway 401 were closed in London, between Highbury Avenue and Wellington Road, where a jackknifed transport trailer blocked lanes after a crash with a passenger vehicle.
Another jackknifed trailer earlier in the day closed westbound lanes on the 401, at Wonderland Road. On the 402, the westbound lanes near Glendon Drive in Middlesex County were also closed when a transport truck carrying vehicles flipped over in a crash that has since been cleared.
Sanchuk issued a number of increasingly urgent public addresses throughout the morning and early afternoon, urging drivers to slow down.
“The last thing we want to do is knock on someone’s door to [tell their family] that they’ve been injured or they’re deceased as a result of a preventable crash,” Sanchuk said.
Aside from crashes throughout the region, the weather resulted in widespread bus cancellations and school closures in rural areas in southwestern Ontario.
CBC News will update this story as the situation on the roads evolves.
