As motorists tried to get home yesterday evening – traffic was so bad that people had time to twitter while driving. It took over 20 minutes to travel up Trafalgar Road from downtown Oakville to the Oakville GO Station. The black ice was causing all of Oakville’s roads to be treacherous, though the driver’s had to wonder where their property taxes where going. The salt trucks were nowhere. Oakville’s police department responded as quickly as possible to as many calls as possible. In some cases the officers were stuck in the bumper to bumper grid-lock. Several Oakville businesses such as Royal LePage closed down their offices due to the inclement weather.
So where were the salt trucks, and why wasn’t the department responsible for making our roads safe on top of the situation. The weather conditions that blanketed Oakville was provided well in advance by a multitude of weather services. Experience of warm roads, freezing air, and precipitation equals icy roads. Severity is a difficult issue to predict, but preparedness is what Oakville residents have a right to expect from their local government. On the town’s website, the Snow-Plow Tracker – clearly indicates that town-wide plowing operations are not being undertaken.