Storm Watch: drivers urged to take it easy

(Updated) The snow that started overnight still hasn’t stopped. We’re expecting 15-20 centimetres of snow, and at times it’s falling so thick you can’t see the road ahead of you.

The OPP has told CHCH News there weren’t any serious collisions this morning, mostly because traffic moved at a crawl. Most accidents were single vehicles that ended up in the ditch. The QEW toward Niagara was particularly bad.

Hamilton Police Sergeant Debbie McGreal-Dinning is asking drivers to clear off their vehicles before hitting the road, and to ease off on the gas pedal. “Please, please, please watch your speed.”

“I know everyone’s in a rush. Some people were late for work today; you want to plan your commute ahead of time, get that car heated up, get it cleaned off, because you do need to have that visibility around the vehicle.”

Hamilton school boards were operating normally today; in Halton and Peel buses were cancelled. Closures are being announced on-air on the Storm Watch ticker; and online in the blue Top Stories box on our home page.

Yesterday CHCH News reported that the city of Hamilton is rationing the salt that it uses to keep the roads clear because of a shortage. For now it’s only using salt on main roads. Individuals are having the same problem finding salt.

Wayne Williams of the Waterdown Rona says the salt situation is not great. “We are selling out of salt, we are out of certain items, the bagged salt. We still have salt in containers. That is more expensive but what we recommend is that it gets mixed with sand so that will extend the product. Go 50/50 and that will give you better traction and it’s going to give you the ice melting quality as well.”

“We’re selling almost as much sand as we are salt.”

Those who run businesses are finding their workload doubled.

“You have to get up a bit earlier to clean up your driveway, I had a hard time coming to work, especially on Snake Road, very slippery, then I come and find all the snow here. Try to get business going and it makes it hard.”

“People have nowhere to park. A lot of older people can’t walk, so it really affects us.”

The Waterdown Rona had a full pallet of salt bags last night and none this morning.

A lot of hardware stores have water softener salt in skids in front of their stores. People have been using that when they get desperate but it’s not as strong as road salt, so it’s a last resort.

Even experienced drivers are having trouble with the snow. A CHCH viewer sent in this picture of a HSR bus getting stuck on James St south of Hunter, while making a turn in to the Hamilton GO Centre.

And in Grimsby, another viewer sent us this picture of a snow plow that just couldn’t go any further. Kelly Richardson says the plow broke down at Christie and Main, and had been there for about 45 minutes with police helping to direct traffic around it.