Winter’s Back
Well not officially, but it sure seems like it.
Yesterday we were hit with a snowfall that sent drivers in this city into a panic. I don’t mean panic in a negative way but drivers across Calgary were either taking it slow, or stressing in the congestion of the crowds of cars stuck on Deerfoot, Glenmore or Crowchild.
I drove around town for nearly 7 hours yesterday experiencing the slick conditions, the stressful traffic jams and close calls (or worse) that you were dealing with. It wasn’t fun at the end of my shift, I’m sure I have some bedsores on my behind from sitting in that cruiser for so long. We learned today that there were nearly 400 collisions in our city between 6am and 6pm yesterday.
So why all the crashes? Is it a lot of accidents because the weather was so bad, is it inadequate sanding and salting, or is it bad driving? At least one of the newspapers in Calgary ran a story with readers claiming it was a problem with snow removal saying they saw barely any salters, sanders or plows on the streets. But this morning when I went out to talk to drivers I heard a different story.
Every listener I spoke with says it was drivers doing stupid things that probably lead to a bulk of the crashes. I heard stories of tailgating, speeding, people being cut off and some even going to slow by driving 40 kilometres an hour on the Deerfoot. Not one person claimed snow removal was a problem…one man saying he didn’t think the trucks should have even been out because 3-5 centimetres on the ground is barely a snowfall. Obviously he blames the crashes on people who don’t drive to the conditions.
On the other hand as I was driving, I only saw about a couple of situations where I questioned what the other driver was doing.
So is it the “bad” weather, the horrible snow removal (which is the responsibility of both the city and the provincial), or the insane drivers that take over the roads on snow days? I guess it’s all in your opinion.