As a snowfall warning continues to cover London, Ont., and its surrounding area, local police agencies are urging caution on the roads amid hazardous conditions.
City officials say snow plows were kept busy in London on Tuesday morning following a snowfall that began the evening prior.
On Twitter, London police revealed they spent the morning responding to a number of collisions throughout the city. Another tweet added that police had seen many vehicles travelling with snow-covered windows, with one driver being issued a $110 fine.
Much of the same was seen outside of the city, according to Const. Ed Sanchuk of the Norfolk County OPP.
“In Norfolk County and surrounding attachments, we’ve been extremely busy with various vehicles in the ditches and motor vehicle collisions,” Sanchuk told Global News, adding that snow-covered windows also posed an issue to police.
“We stopped a vehicle with a small section cleared in front of the windshield. The rest of the windows were covered, so the problem you have with that is if you can’t see it, how are you going to avoid it.”
Sanchuk said another incident from Tuesday morning served as a reminder to always pack warm clothing when driving in the winter.
“One vehicle that was in the ditch this morning, the person was in the backseat, we ended up pulling up and putting them in the back of our cruiser to keep them warm,” Sanchuk said.
Along with packing essentials and taking extra time in the morning to clear your vehicle, Sanchuk also stressed the importance of reducing speed, using winter tires and keeping entire headlight systems turned on.
“Road conditions don’t cause crashes, bad driving habits do,” Sanchuk added.
Back in London, the city’s division manager of road operations, John Parsons, says snow plows are in for a long night as they brace for an oncoming snowfall.
“We make pretty good headway through the evening and it does look like the snow will taper off later on, so it should give us a good chance to have most of it all cleaned up by (Wednesday),” Parsons said.
“It all depends, if another streamer comes off the lake then we could be back to square one.”
Those who want to keep track of the plows can do so on the City of London’s snow updates webpage. Londoners can also use the website to report unplowed roads or slippery conditions.