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Snowbanks were removed Thursday from the overpass that connects Highway 416 to the Queensway as Ontario Provincial Police continued to investigate the nightmarish crash that killed a 46-year-old Ottawa man.
The man, who has not been publicly identified, lost control of his car as he drove northbound on Highway 416 during Wednesday’s morning rush hour. His car is believed to have mounted the snowbank and plunged from the overpass onto the shoulder of Highway 417 below.
The car landed on its roof; the driver was declared dead at the scene.
OPP Const. Rhéal Levac said Thursday that investigators continued to interview witnesses in an effort to understand how the driver lost control of his black four-door sedan. Crash investigators were trying to reconstruct the crash.
“We’re still piecing everything together,” said Levac, who refused to speculate on the roles played by either speed, or the snowbank.
“We need to get all the information we can before we can provide a better picture of what occurred,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation said snow clearing crews focused their operations early Wednesday on putting salt on highways and ramps to combat a morning frost and ensure safe driving conditions.
“Our contractor has since returned to removing snow from the ramp shoulders,” said the ministry’s Rebecca Veaudry.
The snowbanks were removed from the overpass by about 2 p.m. Thursday.
Under terms of its performance based contract, the company responsible for maintaining Ottawa-area highways must restore bare pavement within eight hours of a winter storm’s end.
After that, Veaudry said, the contractor is to “work continuously” to remove snow piled on highway shoulders and ramps.
“(But) this removal work may be interrupted by another storm or the need to complete salting operations to prevent slippery conditions,” she noted.
In April, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk slammed the provincial government for outsourcing winter highway maintenance to private contractors. Ever since that move in 2009, Lysyk said, the overriding criterion for awarding contracts has been price, which means that private firms have been forced to minimize the number of plows, and the amount of salt, sand and anti-icing liquid used on Ontario highways.
“While the change has been successful in reducing and containing winter highway maintenance expenditures, it has done so at the cost of Ontario’s roads not being as well-maintained in the winter as they used to be,” she concluded in her special report.
In the Ottawa and Kingston area, the number of plows operating on highways has fallen from 40 to 26; the number of trucks capable of spreading salt and sand has also gone down.
The province sets a performance target requiring its contractors to meet its eight-hour bare pavement standard for 90 per cent of winter storms. Firms that don’t meet that target are fined. (The contractor responsible for Ottawa area roads reached the bare pavement standard 91 per cent of the time during the difficult winter of 2013-14.)
In response to the auditor general’s report, the province has added $5 million to its annual winter road maintenance budget to speed snow removal and make highways safer.
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aduffy@postmedia.com
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The man, who has not been publicly identified, lost control of his car as he drove northbound on Highway 416 during Wednesday’s morning rush hour. His car is believed to have mounted the snowbank and plunged from the overpass onto the shoulder of Highway 417 below.
The car landed on its roof; the driver was declared dead at the scene.
OPP Const. Rhéal Levac said Thursday that investigators continued to interview witnesses in an effort to understand how the driver lost control of his black four-door sedan. Crash investigators were trying to reconstruct the crash.
“We’re still piecing everything together,” said Levac, who refused to speculate on the roles played by either speed, or the snowbank.
“We need to get all the information we can before we can provide a better picture of what occurred,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation said snow clearing crews focused their operations early Wednesday on putting salt on highways and ramps to combat a morning frost and ensure safe driving conditions.
“Our contractor has since returned to removing snow from the ramp shoulders,” said the ministry’s Rebecca Veaudry.
The snowbanks were removed from the overpass by about 2 p.m. Thursday.
Under terms of its performance based contract, the company responsible for maintaining Ottawa-area highways must restore bare pavement within eight hours of a winter storm’s end.
After that, Veaudry said, the contractor is to “work continuously” to remove snow piled on highway shoulders and ramps.
“(But) this removal work may be interrupted by another storm or the need to complete salting operations to prevent slippery conditions,” she noted.
In April, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk slammed the provincial government for outsourcing winter highway maintenance to private contractors. Ever since that move in 2009, Lysyk said, the overriding criterion for awarding contracts has been price, which means that private firms have been forced to minimize the number of plows, and the amount of salt, sand and anti-icing liquid used on Ontario highways.
“While the change has been successful in reducing and containing winter highway maintenance expenditures, it has done so at the cost of Ontario’s roads not being as well-maintained in the winter as they used to be,” she concluded in her special report.
In the Ottawa and Kingston area, the number of plows operating on highways has fallen from 40 to 26; the number of trucks capable of spreading salt and sand has also gone down.
The province sets a performance target requiring its contractors to meet its eight-hour bare pavement standard for 90 per cent of winter storms. Firms that don’t meet that target are fined. (The contractor responsible for Ottawa area roads reached the bare pavement standard 91 per cent of the time during the difficult winter of 2013-14.)
In response to the auditor general’s report, the province has added $5 million to its annual winter road maintenance budget to speed snow removal and make highways safer.
Related
aduffy@postmedia.com
查看原文...
