Winter weather conditions remain treacherous on area roadways as more snow began to touchdown Monday.
The conditions of at least one area highway even became deadly before this recent snowfall. The OPP responded to 46 motor vehicle collisions on Sunday, including one fatal single-vehicle incident on Highway 17 near Shabaqua.
John Lackey, 55, of Keswick, Ont., was pronounced dead at the scene of where the pickup truck he was a passenger of rolled over just one kilometre from Finmark Road.
The 27-year-old driver of vehicle, which was travelling east, was taken to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre with non-life threatening injuries.
OPP Const. Diana Cole said it was a busy day for officers.
“I believe weather was a factor. It was snowing on Saturday and Sunday with blowing conditions and the roads became quite icy, causing a lot of vehicles to go into the ditch,” Cole said.
“The past week we’ve had cold weather conditions which has caused the roads to become icy and frost covered. People are driving at the same speed thinking it’s a bare and dry highway when it’s really not.”
Highway 61 was backlogged for much of Sunday afternoon when the roadway was closed near Mount Forest Boulevard due to a two-vehicle collision.
A southbound pickup truck lost control and slid into oncoming traffic where it struck a northbound sports utility vehicle. Four people were taken to hospital, and the driver of the pickup truck was ticketed for crossing the yellow line. A male involved in the collision remains in hospital in critical condition.
Southbound traffic was backed up from Chippewa Road all the way to the Neebing Avenue and Princess Avenue intersection leading into the Thunder Bay International Airport.
The highway havoc extended into Monday with snow continuing to fall.
The OPP reported seven more motor vehicle incidents early in the morning, with the Thunder Bay Police Service saying they were responding to more traffic calls than normal.
Conditions were not much better on Monday as the snow began to fall again late in the morning. Environment Canada predicted that as much as 10 centimetres would accumulate before Monday night.
City and provincial police were responding to more motor-vehicle collisions throughout the day, but exactly how many collisions have been reported remains unknown at this time.
