Response system blamed for Montreal snowstorm fiasco

MONTREAL — Politicians and police in Quebec are promising to do better after an investigator blamed the government’s response system for the debacle on a city highway last March that left 300 motorists stranded after a major snowstorm.

Authorities underestimated the severity of the problems and communicated poorly with one another, Florent Gagné concluded in his report released Friday.

The Transport Department “lamentably failed in its job,” Gagné wrote, adding provincial police “lacked initiative.”

No one person is to blame, however, because the system didn’t work, said Gagné, a former head of the Quebec provincial police and an ex-deputy transport minister. In particular, Transport Minister Laurent Lessard can’t be blamed for inaction because critical details about the events weren’t brought to his attention, Gagné said.

The “main reason” for the crisis was due to the Transport Department’s command centre not doing its job, he told a news conference.

“There were not enough personnel,” Gagné said. “No bosses were there, the computers weren’t working properly. The patrols on the road were not feeding the centre [with information] as they usually do. Information didn’t go up the ladder to the hierarchy of the Transport Department.”

Hundreds of drivers were left stranded on Montreal’s Highway 13 on March 14 after the storm blanketed the city with about 40 centimetres of snow. Some drivers spent the night in their vehicles while others abandoned their cars and left on foot after waiting hours for help.