A number of people seemed to be caught off guard when the weather turned cold in Northumberland on Saturday, October 27, 2018.
“This is our first big weather event of the season and people just weren’t prepared,” said Northumberland OPP Constable Jeff Laporte.
“They were just going way to fast.”
Numerous collisions were reported starting just after 5 p.m. east of Colborne on Highway 401 in both directions along with another collision on County Road 45 just north of Beagle Club Road.
One transport went off the highway just east of the Ontario Street overpass on Highway 401 in Cobourg and jack-knifed.
The transport was left until the morning when it will be removed from the ditch.
Most of the people weren’t injured, but as of 9:30 p.m. there were no serious injuries reported in any of the collisions.
Most of the collisions were vehicles that had spun out into the ditch or rolled over in to the ditch.
Within an hour, Laporte had charged three people with failing to move over for emergency vehicles.
“We were very lucky tonight,” said Laporte referring no one seriously injured in accidents, and a tow truck driver and himself narrowly escaping being struck on the highway.
While Laporte was dealing with one collision along the highway, a vehicle passed a plow and, “came extremely close to my cruiser and a tow truck.”
Laporte pulled the driver over and charged him him with failing to move over for emergency vehicle and/or tow truck.
Approximately 30 minutes later, the same tow truck driver and Laporte were at a collision on the eastbound lanes of Highway 401 near Brighton.
Two vehicles came by Laporte’s cruiser and the tow truck driver, “coming extremely close to both of us.”
Laporte said, “they had ample opportunity to move over to the right lane.”
The vehicles were so close, both Laporte and the tow truck driver were sprayed with slush from the vehicles.
Laporte managed to get both vehicles to pull over and later issued them both tickets at the On-Route centre.
One was also issued a ticket for having no insurance card.
Laporte said both the emergency lights on the police cruiser and the lights on the tow truck were activated.
“There is no reason why they couldn’t see something was going on.”
The one driver said to Laporte he thought the lights may have been construction happening along the highway.
“At that point I asked him his driving habits around construction zones. You don’t get as close as you can to the workers and continue at highway speeds.”
The vast majority of people slowed and moved over to the right lane which is the law.
When a emergency vehicle or tow truck has their lights activated, “there is no excuse” not to move over.
“Especially at night when the (emergency) lights are that much brighter.”
Laporte was struck by a tractor trailer in 2001, prior to the new legislation about moving over for emergency vehicles.
“This is something that is close to my heart and every officer’s heart that patrols highways.”
“There is no leeway there. You move away from emergency vehicles, tow vehicles and construction.”
“You don’t fly by people at those speeds. Especially in this weather.”
The fines for drivers if they don’t slow down, or move over when safe to do so, near emergency vehicles or tow trucks that are stopped with sirens or lights flashing.
First offence:
$400 to $2,000
3 demerit points upon conviction
possible suspension of driver’s licence for up to 2 years
Subsequent offences (within 5 years):
$1,000 to $4,000
3 demerit points upon conviction
possible jail time (up to 6 months)
possible suspension of driver’s licence for up to 2 years
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
