The first blast of winter is catching Ontario drivers off guard with at least 80 crashes, many of them minor, reported since noon.
Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for Toronto and much of the GTA, which may see up to 15 centimetres of snow according to the weather agency.
Toronto police are reporting 50 crashes since noon, many of them happening after 1 p.m.
The Ontario Provincial Police are also seeing a spike in the number of accident-related calls, and Peel Regional Police reported 34 crashes in a single hour this afternoon between around 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Manager of Road Operations for the city of Toronto, Hector Moreno, advised drivers to leave more time to get to their destination and give plenty of room for snow plows who are on the roads clearing a path.
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“Road plowing won’t commence until we’ve reached 2.5 centimetres of snow accumulation on the expressways, about five centimetres of snow on our main roads and about eight centimetres of snow on our residential streets,” Moreno said.
He believes his crews will likely be the busiest from midnight to 5 a.m. when the snowfall is expected to be the most intense.
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