WINNIPEG – Thousands of southern Manitoba drivers were unwinding late Thursday after a tough time on highways earlier in the day.
High winds, snow and wild temperature swings resulted in treacherous road conditions that led to vehicles hitting ditches and highways being closed.
Sections of highways 75, 1 and 5 were closed because of reduced visibility.
Joseph Matthews, a truck driver from Kansas, waited on Highway 75 for six hours. Driving up north was worse Wednesday and that road wasn’t closed, he said.
“(There were) a lot of drifts, plowed but just one lane and wasn’t down to asphalt, so you had to go slow.”
On Winnipeg’s south Perimeter Highway, a tractor-trailer became mired in a snowdrift and blocked morning commuter traffic for two hours.
Some drivers who endured horrible conditions wondered why some highways were closed while others remained open despite treacherous conditions.
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Here are the criteria Manitoba Highways and the RCMP consider when deciding whether to close a road:
- visibility
- snow drifts
- ice on the road
- number of recent collisions
- future forecast
Each RCMP detachment goes through the list and decides whether a roadway should be closed.
“It would be the members in the area,” explained RCMP spokeswoman Tara Seel. “The detachment commanders in the area, so it’s a different decision-making process (with a) different person making that decision.”
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