The Real Reason Why Highway 13 Was Shutdown During The Blizzard
It's the kind of thing that normally happens in the US, when unprepared cities get hit by snowstorms, but here in Montreal you'd think we would have gotten used to snow by now.
During Tuesday night's snow storm, more than 300 vehicles were completely stranded for up to 13 hours overnight on Côte-de-Liesse.
It got so bad, that the Premier has now launched an inquiry to find out exactly what happened.
BREAKING: Premier Couillard, transport minister Laurent Lessard offer apologies to those inconvenienced by Tuesday night's snowstorm.
READ ALSO: Video Showing Man In Montreal Driving Ski-Doo On Highway 20 During Blizzard
But who's fault was it? The city, or the snow?
According to CBChere's what happened.
Calls started coming in at 6:08pm about an accident involving a jackknifed tractor-trailer on Highway 13.
All the cars behind the accident were completely stuck and couldn't drive around the accident.
By the time plowing and towing vehicles arrived, there was a huge line of cars gradually getting buried by the falling snow.
For some reason, the transport ministry only called the city at 11:50pm and they didn't even mention the fact that over 300 people were stranded on the highway.
Mayor Coderre claims they only found out about the problem at 3:30 am! He even tweeted this timeline to show when they found out about the situation:
Voici le rapport que mes responsables de la sécurité civile à Mtl m'ont remis concernant les événements de l'autoroute 13 pic.twitter.com/CZ60twa8Zd
The SQ took so long to react, that Montreal's firefighter decided to take care of the situation themselves.
Some people started abandoning their vehicles, including one man who had no choice because he suffers from diabetes.
A woman even tried to get all the cars to back-up in sync, so they could all get out of there, but by then too many people had already ditched their cars and some had simply run out of gas.
It was close to 5:00 am by the time cars were able to drive home.
