The highways are literal ice, either thawing, freezing or going to become ice later tonight and people all over facebook, messenger, whatsapp, whatever are all messaging each other and me and my family asking what the highways are like today and if they can safely go out. People are dying on the highways this week all over the north. Stay at home.
The safest thing to do is just don’t go on the highway when it is raining in December in northern Ontario!!!
This is part of the problems that come with exclusively designing an entire country to only be accessible by cars. Trams and trains don’t struggle nearly as much in icy conditions.
I keep joking with my friends that we in Canada should build a single purpose road that should only be used by transport vehicles … and to save time and energy, since it is all one road with no small passenger vehicles, we could string together long lines of these trucks together … and to save even more time and increase efficiency, we could get rid of excess motorized trucks and just tie all these trailers to one massive engine to pull a hundred trailers at a time … and to save even more time, we could build bigger, heavier trailers to carry more material at a time … and since the engine and trailers are so heavy, we could build a more reinforced road … maybe even make it out of steel
But all that seems to be far too controversial to be possible.
“i HaVe AlL wHeEl DrIvE i CaN dRiVe ThRoUgH iT!”
I swear to god … I know far too many people in my life who drive like they are watching TV at home and have absolutely no awareness of the danger they are in.
You could also have barricades up around that and you’d still get a few drivers asking if they could go through there.
I’m a tradesperson, I work at a monument. Tourists pay to enter and look at old shit. The also try to enter blocked off areas with signs like: Danger, entry forbidden, hazard of immediate death or dismemberment!
And when told no, you could easily die, fuck off. They almost always say something like “BUT I PAID THE TICKET PRICE! I DEMAND TO SEE EVERYTHING!” And then sometimes they get escorted off site.But I’ve got a golden ticket!
I always wanted to be a lighthouse keeper! How’s the pay?
Absolute garbage, decent benefits though…like crippling loneliness!
You just need to develop schizophrenia, then you’ll always have a friend by your side!
That’s the spirit!
I saw someone drive right through a police roadblock for a movie shoot where the scene was a transport truck flying through a red light. Cop jumped out of the car and ran after them to get them to stop.
I used to live next to a bridge that was taken apart to get renovated. Three cars crashed into the barriers that said “Bridge is closed", one car per night until Police put up extra barriers.
People ask others for confirmation on the road conditions?
Many people are just completely unaware or just ignorant of the dangers. I’m near Sudbury and its been raining here for the past day … in December! which never happens. So for a logical person, rain, water and freezing conditions will naturally make ice … and ice on the highway while you are driving at 100km/h is a very dangerous thing to do … mix in the fact that you will likely have a transport truck going in the opposite direction next to you and now you have increased your chances of dying tenfold.
Even after analyzing all that and even stepping over to your car while walking on ice … many people are still asking if it is safe to be on the road today.
I’m reminded of the first ice storm that I can remember. I was walking to the bus stop, slipping and sliding all over the place, when a neighbor poked their head out and said that school had been cancelled for the day. I didn’t even think to check because there was no snow on the ground. I slid slowly home and checked the radio (yes, I’m old) - there was our district number being called. I told my brother and we started watching tv.
Not long after that my dad woke up for work, surprised to see us home. He looked out the window and called bullshit. “There’s nothing out there!” So he got ready for work as usual, backed out of the driveway, started moving slowly forward… and promptly slid right into the curb. He came back in and called out of work. The ration of shit he gave to my brother and I got served right back to him by his boss.
tl;dr people don’t take freezing rain seriously
I used to be the same way and act like a big tough northerner and tell people to suck it up and don’t be so scared of a bit of snow or a bit of ice.
After you go through many winters where you heard of family and friends that died in a highway accident when they could have just stayed home, you start to realize how dumb it is to make fun of dangerous situations. My rule of thumb now is … if I stop to wonder if I should be on the highway, then I get off and stay off. I’d rather look like an overly cautious driver or even be completely wrong than to risk my life or the lives of others unnecessarily.
I suppose so, I’ve just never thought “I wonder how the roads are” and thought to crowd source that information rather than just look it up or pop my head out the window
I think many people are just looking for reassurance in their ignorance. I see plenty of comments like ‘it’s not that bad’, ‘I just got back from North Bay’, ‘if you take it easy it’s not that bad’, ‘if you have winter tires and a good driver, you’ll be OK’ … and I suspect that most people are just looking for people to confirm their beliefs that it is acceptable for them to head out on the highway.
As I’m writing this, I just got notices on my FB that another person has probably died north of North Bay on Highway 11
Am in Liskeard in we’re having just as much fun with the weather…not
The real shocking thing by all the comments is how many users of this site live in Northern Ontario.
