Ontario drivers jolted back in to winter driving mode

(Updated)

The latest on the wintry blast that has led to a lot of lengthy delays on the roads across Southern Ontario today.

And if you had the misfortune of driving in the Niagara region today, it was a nightmare on highways in the peninsula. Conditions were so bad this afternoon, there were spinouts and crashes every couple of minutes.

Megan Burns was halfway to work on the QEW this afternoon when she lost control of her car: “I wasn’t doing anything different and my car just did a 360 probably twice and went straight into the guardrail. I’ve never hit anything so hard in my life.”

The Mercedes was smashed but she wasn’t hurt: “I’m so grateful and fortunate that nobody hit me and everybody saw me and stopped.”

There were crashes up and down the QEW through the Niagara region. Drivers lost bumpers.

“It’s a mess, pretty much everywhere.”

Cars spun around facing the wrong way.

“Deeper snow than I’m used to. I would have expected the roads to be a little clearer.”

Plows were out there, but the roads were still covered in snow.

Closer to the lake in West Niagara, it’s been snowing all day. During the morning rush, the snow was falling fast — about 2.5 centimetres an hour.”

Tow truck operators didn’t stop: “So far since 7am, I think it’s around 13.”

Pulling vans out of centre medians, cars out of deep ditches and pick up trucks that couldn’t stay on the road.

“If it helps for other people to see what happened to me, drive super careful. I wasn’t driving fast and it felt like somebody took the car and said, see ya!”

Beyond the Niagara region the roads weren’t much better on the morning or afternoon commute. Slick and snowy conditions led to dozens of minor collisions, slowing traffic for most of the day, regardless of direction. Here’s more on how drivers were handling the roads in the latest round of wintry weather.

It’s a slow moving procession drivers are happy to get behind.

After coming under fire for not plowing fast enough during the November storm. The MTO says all 65 pieces of equipment are on the roads, and will continue to clear and salt the highways until the pavement is dry.

“Driving was really slippery coming into work this morning. It’s a little bit better now though.”

Even with the plows, traffic was crawling during the morning commute.

“Just slow, slippery. Main roads are like a parking lot.”

“It’s slippery, people are driving slow and they’re in and out of traffic it’s dangerous.”

The Toronto bound high occupancy vehicle (HOV) and left lanes of the QEW were blocked off just past Guelph Line around 10:30am for a jackknifed tractor trailer. Tow trucks were able to reopen the lanes within about an hour.

But then shortly after, another single vehicle crash in roughly the same area. This time it was the right lane of the QEW that was blocked after a van appeared to lose control hitting the concrete barrier.

As the snow continued to fall, there were dozens of calls along the 400 series highways in the afternoon including this tractor trailer which ended up in the ditch along the 403 westbound lanes just past King Road.

Traffic was reduced to one lane as rescue crews brought the driver out on a backboard to a waiting ambulance.

The MTO is reminding drivers to slow down and give other vehicles extra space in the snow.