Officials with the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent confirm a snowplow involved in an incident last week after a major snowfall is owned by an operator that they contract out to.
The borough is also now apologizing for those impacted.
Videos of the incident, captured by surveillance cameras and onboard vehicle cameras and posted to social media, show a city snowplow crashing into multiple vehicles.
Vince Confuorti’s two vehicles, a van and a recently-acquired Tesla, were among the cars badly damaged in the crash.
The side panels on both vehicles had deep dents and scratches. The van’s windows were blown out as a result of impact, allowing snow to accumulate inside.
While the family is insured, the van will likely be a complete write-off.
When Global News first reported the story over the weekend, the family said it had reported the incident to borough officials and were hoping for an apology, but hadn’t gotten much response.
When reached on Saturday, borough mayor Alan da Sousa said a preliminary investigation done by borough officials determined the snow plow that did the damage was owned by a private contractor.
But on Monday, borough spokesperson Marc-Olivier Fritsch confirmed the plow was in fact owned by an operator contracted by them.
“In light of the new videos broadcast by Global News recorded by the surveillance cameras of some of the residents who were victims of last week’s snow removal accident, the borough of Saint-Laurent conducted the necessary verifications,” Fritsch wrote in an email.
He explained when the borough first commented in the French media on Friday, it did not have access to the new videos, saying without that “it was impossible to publicly assign blame.”
Fritsch added that the borough was extending its apologies to the owners of the damaged vehicles, while the contractor is facing potential penalties.
The borough, he said, “has initiated the penalty procedure stipulated in the contract with the operator who was responsible for the accident.”
The Confuorti family said it did not wish to comment further but told Global News the city had not directly reached out to apologize.
— with files from Global News’ Dan Spector