Weather causes problems for motorists, schools

Over 80 Hydro One employees worked from Friday morning on through the weekend to restore hydro service to residents along County Road 10 in Essa Township. Over 50 hydro poles were knocked down early Friday morning. Hydro service was restored Sunday afternoon to the last of the Elmgrove area residents. photo by Richard Blanchard

Simcoe County came to a stop Monday as high winds and snow squalls deteriorated the road conditions as the day went on.

The northbound lanes of Highway 400 were closed around 2 p.m. on Monday near Highway 88 after a three vehicle collision started a chain reaction in which 75 cars were involved.

The southbound lanes had been closed hours earlier near Highway 89 after a similar accident involved a 50 car pileup.

At one point, Hwy's 400, 27 and 11 were all closed due to the conditions. Hwy. 89 was closed east of Cookstown with a jackknifed tractor trailer.

At 2:15 Monday afternoon, the Simcoe County District School Board and the Simcoe-Muskoka Catholic School Board announced all school bus and van transportation had been cancelled.

Students remained at school until a parent or guardian with signing authority picked up their children.

At press time, Tecumseth North Central School had reported that two students, a mother of one of the students plus a young sibling, two teachers, one principal and three stranded motorists, who were teachers and a principal from the Scarborough board, stayed the night in the school.

Gordon Campbell, Director of Education for the SCDSB stated safety is never an inconvenience. In his message, he states the decision to cancel the busses was made "after assessing deteriorating road conditions, police warnings and a special County of Simcoe road advisory."

The Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury opened an emergency shelter at the council chambers courthouse to provide overnight shelter to stranded motorists.

Early Monday afternoon, the County of Simcoe released a statement in which there were severe weather conditions in the county and motorists were advised to be careful if they had to go out on the roads.

South Simcoe Police and Nottawasaga and Barrie OPP responded to numerous accidents throughout the day.

The Huronia Call Centre had received 207 reports of accidents by 12:45 p.m.