Freezing rain turns drive home into nightmare with more than 50 collisions

Police responded to more than 50 collisions in about a five-hour span Friday afternoon as freezing rain blanketed the region and caused mayhem on the afternoon commute.

Emergency personnel fanned out across the city as calls poured in, with fire officials saying they were dealing with “multiple” trapped motorists needing to be freed from rollovers and other collisions in quick succession.

With freezing rain beginning just after the noon hour, police had already reported 40 collisions by the time the afternoon rush hour began.

Const. Chuck Benoit said highways and other arterial roads were already congested by 4:30 p.m. Friday, with the steady freezing rain and related fender benders across the city compounding rush-hour frustrations.

One serious head-on collision closed a section of Greenbank Road from Hunt Club to Fallowfield.

Two people were sent to hospital with serious, non-life-threatening injuries, and a third was treated by paramedics and released at the scene.

An earlier collision caused heavy traffic congestion on Highway 417 near Anderson Road just after noon Friday, with traffic backed up in both directions on the highway.

One person was freed from a vehicle that rolled onto its roof on Moodie Drive near West Hunt Club Road. Another had to be freed from van that landed on its roof near Innes Road.

Yet another driver managed to get out after a van flipped into the ditch at Prince of Wales and Fallowfield roads.

Temperatures hovered around the freezing mark into Friday evening as freezing rain gradually changed to rain.

The forecast called for sun and clouds Saturday before snow moves in some time before Sunday morning.

Environment Canada meteorologists were calling for periods of rain and freezing rain to return Sunday, with a daytime high of 10 C and a low of -4 C overnight.