City's first significant snowfall has police reminding people to slow down, take your time

Last night's snowfall led to 18 crashes around the city and was a reminder to many drivers to drive according to the weather.

The wintry weather over the past several hours left many Barrie residents shovelling out for the first time this season on Tuesday morning. 

Drivers were also either unprepared or didn’t have their vehicles snow-ready. City police responded to 18 collisions, with 10 happening between 3 p.m. and midnight, according to Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon.

Six of those crashes were investigated at the scene and 12 went to the Collision Reporting Centre. No one was seriously injured, Leon said.

“The first storm always catches people off guard and as we say, if you see snow, go slow,” Leon told BarrieToday. “It really is the only way to drive in this weather, no matter where you’re going.

"Your boss would rather have you late than not there if you’re on your way to work," he added. 

While collisions were scattered throughout the city, Leon said there were issues at Ferndale Drive and Edgehill Drive, likely due to the hill near that intersection.

There were also some power outages that caused issues with traffic lights in the north end of the city last night.

The city declared a 'winter maintenance event' yesterday, alerting residents to park on the road overnight so plows could clear the streets.

“That should have been sufficient warning to everyone that the weather was about to take a turn and it was time to prepare," Leo said. "Now, many places that exchange tires are pretty booked up, so hopefully that means folks are getting the work done that is needed because the weather is here and will be for the next few months likely."

More snow is in the forecast for Thursday night and into the weekend, according to Environment Canada.