The snow may have stopped by Thursday morning, but for police and paramedics, the day shaped up to be a busy one as telecommuters headed back to work.
“It was worse (Thursday) morning than it was compared to the two previous rush hours,” said Ottawa paramedic spokesman J.P. Trottier. “I suspect a lot of people worked from home on Wednesday. Perhaps that influenced it a little bit. It was worse in terms of the number of calls because of the road conditions.”
Paramedics attended the scene of dozens of minor collisions where drivers had slid off the road.
Paramedics receive a flood of calls every time there’s a snow day, which can prove to be a strain on services, Trottier said.
“We’ll have some people driving by (collisions) and call 911. We find ourselves going to a lot of calls where our services are not required.”
Sixty or 70 per cent of the calls paramedics attended Thursday did not require medical assistance.
“It drains our resources, big time,” said Trottier.
Ottawa OPP were also busy Thursday morning, attending about a dozen collisions.
“It’s been one call after another,” said Const. Guy Prevost. “We had a few rollovers. Because snowbanks are so hard, the cars go sideways once they hit the snowbank. And people have been going straight into the ditches.”
Over in Gatineau, drivers were a bit more careful.
Police attended 43 weather-related collisions, including three with injuries, between 7 a.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Thursday, said Constable Isabelle Poirier.
