A large quantity of screws that appears to have been accidentally spilled on Ness Avenue near Moray Street has left some Winnipeg drivers with popped and leaky tires.
“Heads up: Avoid Ness between Whytewold and Moray, both directions. Thousands of roofing nails spilled off a truck. People are getting flat tires,” said Brett Thurston on social media Sunday.
While there was some debate about the type of screws — sheet metal screws, roofing nails and more — what wasn’t debated was the number of flat tires coming out of the area.
Chelsea Santos told Global News her vehicle ended up with a pair of deflated donuts.
“My son drove through there and we had two flat tires on Sunday night,” she said.
“All the repair shops are full right now because people are putting on winter tires, so we have to wait, we have only one spare.”
Several auto repair shops in the area confirmed they had received an influx of calls from locals with flat tires due to the nails.
Brian McKenzie, owner of Ness Auto Service said Tuesday afternoon he’s patched 17 tires so far, adding he was already backed up due to people wanting winter tires put on.
“We’re booking into Dec. 9 right now” for winter tires, he said.
Ken Allen, spokesperson for the City of Winnipeg confirmed the spill and said crews were on the scene cleaning up.
“My understanding is that one of our crews cleaned up the nails on Monday morning, as soon as we became aware of the issue,” he said.
But one neighbourhood man said he cleaned up a large boxful of screws Monday evening.
“This is what I could pick up yesterday,” said Sam Anderson, with a photo of a box about half-filled with screws. “Olive and Ness. One tire is ruined, too.”
Comments