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Winter storm wreaks havoc in southern Alberta |
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Written by Ric Swihart
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Saturday, December 05 2009, 8:39 PM |
Lethbridge Regional Police were running off their feet Saturday responding to weather-related vehicular distresses. Staff Sgt. Jason Dobirstein said he couldn’t provide an accident count since patrolling officers still had to complete their paperwork, but all officers were responding to calls of vehicles stuck in the snow across the city.
He blamed much of the vehicle problems with drivers opting to travel down side streets still filled with snow. Only the major arteries were being cleared by city crews by 4:30 p.m. Saturday, and the snow was still falling as heavy as ever.
At least two city cab companies were “extremely” busy.
A dispatcher at Fifth Avenue Cabs said the wait time Saturday afternoon was one hour to 90 minutes, and nobody could call in a time to be picked up. “It is all first-come, first-served.”
Drivers were reporting difficult driving conditions across the city, especially on the westside where many were getting stuck. That forced them to wait for a tow truck, delaying taxi service even more.
Royal Taxi by 4:30 p.m. was reporting wait times of up to 2.5 hours.
That is partly because half the taxi cab fleet was in limbo because half the drivers were snowbound and couldn’t get to work Saturday.
“You want a taxi cab,” said the dispatcher. “I have 10 of them lined up outside.”
She said many Royal drivers were reporting getting stuck on the well travelled routes. No Royal taxis will go off the main streets for customers.
“The people of Lethbridge are really good helping to push our taxi cabs out of the snow,” she said.
Kevin Viergutz, City of Lethbridge Transportation Operations Manager, said residents are being asked to stay off city streets, especially as city crews struggle to keep priority routs passable with the falling snow and high winds.
Late Saturday, crews moved from the two major priority roads to those accommodating city buses.
Viergutz said once the snow and wind drops off, crews will be able to make headway on the plugged streets.
Local residential roadways and all other roadways are classified as Priority 4, and will be plowed once the plowing of the major priority roads is complete. That could start this evening or early Monday morning.
All the city snow plowing equipment is deployed and is being augmented by six rented graders. “We are awaiting the arrival of an additional six rented graders.”
The City's Public Operations 24 Hour response line is currently being inundated with requests for snow plowing. “We are asking that only those persons with genuine emergencies call at this time.”
Transit users should expected delays in service due to the road conditions. Service will improve as road plowing progresses.
Motorists are warned to leave plenty of room between their vehicles and snow plows and graders.
For more information on Snow & Ice Control and to view the priority maps go to the City of Lethbridge website www.lethbridge.ca and click on Snow and Ice Control under Public Notices.
The bad weather and poor road conditions forced postponement of Saturday’s Lethbridge Hurricanes game against the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Instead, the ’Canes archrivas will make their much-anticipated first visit of the season to Lethbridge on Monday. Gametime is 7 p.m.
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