There was chaos on the roads because of high winds and blowing snow on Monday, resulting in a major pileup on Highway 417 in Eastern Ontario, near North Glengarry.
In total, twenty vehicles were involved in this series of accidents, which occurred shortly before 4pm westbound, between the villages of Saint-Isidore and Vankleek Hill, near Highway 34.
A Voyageur coach, two tankers, a semi-trailer truck carrying a cargo of cars and some cars were involved in the pileup which were likely cause by the poor weather conditions.
Fifteen people were injured slightly. Two further people had to be transported to the hospital. Several emergency vehicles were deployed to the scene of the incident, almost halfway between Ottawa and Montreal.
In total, more than 150 accidents were reported during the day, both on Outaouais roads that Eastern Ontario, due to difficult road conditions.
One of the people that went to the hospital was my mom, coming back from seeing my sister in Montreal. The coach got caught in the tail end of a white-out and collided into the back of a car, itself involved in the multi-vehicle pileup. My mom, sitting in her usual spot in the first row seat, went through the front windshield of the bus and landed on the road. Miraculously, and I don’t use the word lightly, the only injury she suffered was a cut on the top of her head, requiring a dozen stitches, and a big bruise on her shoulder. She thinks that the glass probably shattered when the bus hit, lessening the impact when she went through it. I can’t really believe I just typed that…
She thinks she might have blacked out for a bit, but not too long, and was lucid the whole time, after realising she was on the road, getting wet from the snowstorm. The paramedics did the whole neck brace backboard thing, but xrays showed there were no fractures, no concussion and they only kept her for observations for one night. She feels a bit stiff, but less than she expected to. She’s mostly annoyed that she can’t wash the blood out of her hair. Tough (and lucky!) old bird, she is.
