THUNDER BAY – Winter driving should be a skill people in Northwestern Ontario excel at. However Thunder Bay Police were busy over the past 36 hours dealing with drivers who could not navigate the road conditions with the needed skill.
Police report, “It’s been a very busy 24 hours for police regarding crashed vehicles.
“Twenty five calls have been responded to, three of these involved injuries. All three with injury were the result of excessive speed on cold roads. All twenty five were the result of bad driving”.
Officers would like to remind everyone that winter driving conditions mean that driving behaviors need to change to meet road conditions. The posted road speed signs are for ideal conditions only (read: August) and it is the absolute responsibility of every driver to ensure that control can be maintained at all times.
Black Ice Alert: Today’s weather is typical for the formation of a phenomenon commonly referred to as Black Ice. With ambient temperatures around -18 C, sunny locations will get a bit warmer and road salt will start to melt ice. A motorist should expect that once a shady area is encountered, roads will be suddenly much icier. Similarly, structures like bridges and culverts that have an ability to shed heat quickly will have unexpected ice cover.
