Wintry weather made for tricky driving conditions on many Nova Scotia roads today. A number of accidents were reported as a blast of winter left behind a slick and slippery mess.
Drivers were warned to be extra cautious as salt doesn’t work when the temperature dips below -10 Celsius.
“Pretty slippery right now,” said one Halifax-area driver. “I didn’t have to go far, but I kind of don’t want to go back out.”
Despite numerous warnings about dangerous road conditions, dozens of collisions were reported across the Maritimes.
One crash tied up traffic on one of Sydney’s main streets over the lunch hour after a car reportedly smashed into a light pole.
A CTV News crew was on a ride-along with Const. Raymond Quesnel, a traffic officer with the Halifax Regional Police, when it came across a car abandoned at the scene of a single-vehicle accident.
“Intersections become very slippery and that was a prime example,” said Quesnel. “It doesn’t get any worse than that. You’re coming down a hill so you have to be cognitive and prepared for that.”
Quesnel says motorists should drive defensively in winter conditions and need to allow more time to get where they are going, and more time to stop in traffic.
“When the tires lose traction due to the slush and the ice, it doesn’t matter what you’re driving,” he says. “There’s no traction and it’s going to slide.”
He warns that road conditions can change quickly and with little warning, and says drivers should adjust their speed, pay close attention to their surroundings, and anticipate what is ahead of them.
“People drive the way they drive 365 days a year. It just becomes more visible when the road conditions are bad, the habits are amplified and they put themselves in bad predicaments.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kelland Sundahl
