Police responded to a total of 63 collisions over a 12-hour period overnight as the city got its first blast of winter weather.
According to Const. Clint Stibbe, there were 45 reported collisions involving property damage and 18 reported collisions involving injuries between 5 p.m. on Thursday and 5 a.m. on Friday.
Stibbe said that the vast majority of the collisions occurred in the north end of the city, where snowfall accumulation tended to be higher than it was downtown. He said that driver error was the leading cause of most collisions, though weather was also a contributing factor.
“We have to adjust our driving for the winter weather and unfortunately most drivers don’t make that adjustment and that’s where we see this collisions occur,” Stiibe told CP24 on Friday morning.
Stibbe said that the number of collisions reported overnight weren’t “terribly higher than they would be on a regular day” but were nonetheless a cause for concern, given that they were mostly preventable.
“The fact that we even had one collision shows that drivers are making mistakes,” he said. “It is unacceptable.”
Among the collisions, were several crashes on a hill on Yonge Street just north of Wilson Avenue shortly after midnight.
Reports from the scene indicate that multiple cars travelling southbound were unable to stop due to the icy conditions and slammed into one another.
Police initially closed Yonge Street in both directions north of York Mills Road due to icy conditions but subsequently reopened the northbound lanes.
Police also responded to a garbage truck crash on a hilly stretch Finch Avenue west of Bathurst Street at around 12:35 a.m. Reports from the scene indicate that the truck slid into a pole amid icy conditions, knocking it over.
Two TTC buses that were travelling eastbound at the time ended up getting stuck on the hill as well.
Meanwhile, a brand new Lamborghini sports car was involved in a minor crash overnight, as its driver lost control on Wilson Avenue west of Yonge Street shortly after 1 a.m. and slid into a sidewalk.
The city remained under a winter travel weather advisory in the early hours of Friday morning; however the advisory was lifted at 8:25 a.m. amid improving conditions.
The roads, however, continue to be slippery and in some cases snow-packed north of the city.
Ontario Provincial Police are warning drivers to avoid unnecessary travel on Highway 11 between Barrie and Orillia due to icy conditions.
There have already been numerous collisions reported on that stretch of highway including one involving a mini school bus near Oro-Medonte Township that fortunately did not result in any injuries.
“The plows have been out and the salt has been put down but in exposed areas you can get slippery sections so you still need to slow down,” OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told CP24 on Friday morning. “With the sun shining right now you may feel it is bright and sunny but the roads are still very cold and there still could be some snow and moisture on them.”
According to Environment Canada, flurries from snow squalls southeast of Lake Huron could bring 2-4 centimetres of snow to northern parts of the GTA this morning.
The weather agency says that the flurries will move through Toronto during the morning commute and reach the Brampton area by 8 a.m.
A separate snow squall warning is in place for northern York Region, where up to 20 cm of total accumulation will be possible by later this afternoon.
