Two incidents have been reported in the past couple of weeks involving vehicles being projected over roadside barriers because snow had been piled against the barrier. In one instance, photo shown above, the driver was lucky as the vehicle rollover did not proceed down a deep slope, as shown in the next photo.
In this instance police confirmed that there were “icy roads” and the vehicle “struck the snow on the shoulder” indicating that road maintenance was an issue. Police reported that no charges were laid but the maintenance of the roadway was a factor. Would police not charge the persons involved in maintaining the highway? This is where investigative bias sets in. Even with a major snow storm police have an obligation to inquire why and if certain roadway maintenance was not performed.
In a second incident the situation was more dramatic although the video cannot be shown here. A vehicle was passing through the overpass on Highway 427 at Highway 401 in Toronto on February 3, 2026 when it was launched over a snow-covered barrier and flew onto Highway 401 where it struck the top of a passing tractor-trailer. Miraculously injuries were not life-threatening but obviously a fraction of a second could easily have caused two fatalities in the flying vehicle.
CTV News submitted a photo in their article on a third incident, reportedly on an overpass of Highway 8 in Kitchener on January 26, 2026. The photo clearly showed the extensive snow piled on the barrier of the overpass where the vehicle was launched. In the article on the Highway 427 incident police explained the existence for the snow as follows:
“Plows are coming through, clearing the highways, pushing that snow off to the side,” Schmidt said. “In this case, they can’t push it over the wall because it would go onto the highway below, and so it’s pushed up against the edge.”
While this is a problem it cannot be left alone, blaming it on winter weather conditions. Like any maintenance issue the question is, was the action reasonable? Could the snow be pushed further off the overpass and then onto a roadside slope? Such actions may be more time consuming and complicated but their reasonableness needs to be evaluated. It is our experience that this is not the first time that barriers have become compromised in this manner, in a number of previous years, throughout the Province of Ontario.
Many transportation complications occur due to winter weather, as they occur in many seasons resulting in various dangers. Snow piled on roadside barriers makes those barriers ineffective and dangerous. So it needs to be removed as quickly as possible.
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