Police Biased Claims That Drivers Responsible For Flying Over Snow-Covered Roadside Barriers

Police are using official news media in a propaganda scheme to deflect responsibility from municipalities and the Provincial Government of Ontario for failing to properly remove snow that is pushed onto roadside barriers.

Official news media report that at least four cars have flown over barriers of highway in the vicinity of Toronto in the past week. News media then use quotes from police who claim that the reason why these incidents occurred is because of driver error – and nothing to do with the fact that snow was pushed and piled onto roadside barriers, creating a launching pad for any loss-of-control vehicle that is supposed to be protected by the existence of the barriers. News media are used in this occasion as a conduit to publicize the biased reporting by police who are paid by the Province of Ontario and municipalities that are partly responsible for the dangerous safety problems that are created by improper and incomplete snow-plowing operations.

The occurrence of a major snow storm is the blanket used to cover-up the inadequate snow plowing and snow removal. The inability to react to the chaos of such a storm can be understood. But the deflection of responsibility for the chaos by police cannot, and should not be acceptable. Rather than blaming drivers police ought to be asking “When is that snow going be be removed off of that barrier?” It would not require much thought to understand that where these vehicles are being launched is only at the location of a barrier and not along the full length of a highway. And, specifically, there is a greater chance that a vehicle will go out of control on a slippery roadway where there is a horizontal curve. So the magnitude of the problem is not insurmountable: the greatest danger is these specific locations where there is a curve and a barrier. Thus snow plowing does not need to remove snow from every roadside or even from every barrier, but focus needs to be applied at those locations where a curve exists and where this is a greater potential for vehicles to go out of control. Very few drivers understand this distinction. And without being educated on this issue, the police explanation sounds rather plausible.

And this is not a new phenomenon. Safety problems with roadside barriers are a continual problem from various directions, not just from snow-cover and throughout North America. Whenever those safety problems emerge police continually work to deflect responsibility toward drivers and those safety problems are not corrected. Or if they are corrected they are done in secret, on a delayed basis, when the public eye is not watching. And this is not surprising when police are paid by the very entities that they should blame.