Caution Urged on Foothills
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 @ 8:28 AM
Emergency vehicles respond to crash on Foothills Boulevard – photo 250News
Prince George B.C. – Prince George RCMP are urging drivers to use extra caution on Foothills Boulevard this morning as the roadway has plenty of black ice.
RCMP Media Liaison Officer Cpl. Craig Douglass says offers have already responded to two crashes on the roadway, one at the Foothills Bridge involving three vehicles, the other near the intersection of Cranbrook Hill.
“Drivers should use extra care this morning as the roadway is extremely slippery, and if they haven’t done so yet, make sure their winter tires are on their vehicles” says Cpl Douglass.
Comments
How about sanding the road?
Doesn’t driving to the road conditions sound better than demanding that sand be spread or have you forgotten that there is an entire city with icing conditions I guess in your perfect world every road you drive is well sanded well maintained and everyone drives the exact same way. You might want to join reality for a change
Using common sense and and caution would also help a great deal.
looks like a city dump truck sitting in the middle of it…lol
How about people use common sense and drive according to road conditions! Why do people always find someone else to blame for these incidents. Not saying sanding wouldn’t help, just gives the clueless the opportunity to drive above posted speed limits on slippery roads.
How about setting radar up on Foothills, we never see it here any more,
Early morning and late evening is the worst for drivers going well over the posted limit.
Check their tires.
The city should know most of the danger areas. Why not a little salt before the rush hr. traffic hits the road? They should been out at night as soon as it starts to freeze.
Every inch of road doesn’t get sanded or salted. Curves and/or steep hills. Both accidents on Foothills Blvd this morning were on straight stretches of the road. Driver error. The road was sparkly enough this morning that anyone that drives looking down the road instead of at their toys, would have known to slow it down a bit. Oh, and quit tailgating the vehicle in front of you when the road is slippery.
Maybe Cranbrook Hill? Connaught Hill is quite a ways from Foothills.
Hi duffer….. thanks for that correction…
Looks to me like a classic case of black ice forming on the bridge deck as it does not retain daytime heat at the same rate as the roadway.
ICY-BC rates going up as a result:P
I have no idea how many kms of road there are in the city, but they were all icy. So unless someone invents a method to dump salt from the sky, it will be impossible to sand all the roads in any time frame suitable to drivers.
It should be noted, hundreds of cars managed to get down foothills this morning without crashing. The people I followed down were doing 70 in the 80 and 60 in the 70. Amazing how much safer you are when you drop your speed by 10 km. But then again, took me a whole extra 4 minutes to get to work.
In an other story people complain about the Nanny State. The person who has the most control is you. The ice this morning was very visible, and instead of insisting drivers take responsibility, blame is shifted to the Nanny State for not sanding/salting so we can drive however we please in any type of road conditions.
And then, you complain bitterly about property taxes going up, yet again.
According to City of PG website under Snow Operations they are responsible for 630km of roads and 150km of sidewalks. Under Street Sweeping it says 550km of paved roads. I assume the difference between the two road numbers would be 80km in gravel surface that need attention for snow but don’t need to be swept in the spring.
They may be responsible for clearing the roads, yes, but you have to also use common sense bridges freeze before roads, and the ice would be gone before 10 oclock, seems like a waste of money to throw down sand or salt for ice that will be gone as soon as sunrise. I drove past that scene less than five minutes after it happened, before i even got on foothills i noticed even my winter tires didnt have traction so I adjusted my speed accordingly, took me 5 more minutes to get to my destination.
Onyx: Was just answering ski51’s question and supporting his point that there are a lot more roads to deal with in PG’s city limits than most folks seem to realize. Just dealing with the main arteries takes time leaving adjusting to conditions as the number 1 method of accident prevention. One of the first black ice clues I look for is the road looking wet but sounding dry.
No one wants to put responsibility where it belongs. On the driver. I had zero issues getting to work. I slowed down, had appropriate tires on and kept my distance from other drivers. Whoever was driving too fast for the road conditions clearly has an over inflated sense of self importance putting other drivers at risk. Those people just piss me off. There is no excuse.
Thankfully there was no loss of life in this incident!
We all need to be more aware of road conditions and the limitations of both our vehicles and ourselves because life does literally hang by a thread!
New vehicles are built every day, but there is only one YOU! Slow down, take care, be aware, because your life truly does depend on it!
How about using “extra care” every time you get behind the wheel. Quit blaming the city, the province, the semis and start taking responsibility. I drive to work every day from Westgate. I go through 4 different speed zones, 50, then 80 then down to 60 and back to 50. I did the speed limit all the way to work this morning. I was passed by over a dozen vehicles on Peden Hill alone. Guess what? They were all at the bottom of the hill waiting at the light when I got there. And then again at Ferry and at Highway 97. Driving is a right that comes with responsibility.
Probably just another guy who thought he could “handle ‘er”. Okay now, let the “You don’t know what happened, do you know that for sure? You weren’t there”, could have been a medical episode” comments start.
Speaking of “nanny state” all these new vehicles have electromic Nanny’s that give the driver a false sense that they are a better driver and invincible.
4×4 gets you further in the ditch.
Good point. Though 4×4 has been around a long time to allow you to hit the ditch at a higher speed.
But what about traction control, ABS, electronic stabilizing – these are now standard on pretty much every vehicle.
You’d think we’d see accident rates decline. But instead of slowing down into curves, some assume their car will compensate as they start to slide. Unfortunately once traction is lost on all four wheels, the car can do nothing to save you.
These features were designed to complement safe driving – not make it possible to go faster or less cautiously. They are sort of a safety net that catches those “oops” moments when we thought we’d slowed down enough, but apparently hadn’t.
I have read studies that said driving habits were much safer before Ralph Nader started his safety campaigns against auto manufacturers, because most people knew if they crashed, they would likely be severely hurt or die. Now, you got a really good chance of survival, and sadly, we drive accordingly.
My current truck has saved my life twice both in the wintertime when I lost control on slippery roads my engine went from 8 cylinders down to 4 cylinders reducing power and allowing me to get control of my vehicle
Now I don’t rely on my ABS, anti-slip and smart assist to control my vehicle but I allow it to compliment my driving ability. I have definitely done some very stupid things while driving and I freely admit it but one thing I don’t do is allow my truck to control me I don’t rely on all the bells and whistles but I let them assist me
And unlike many here I have taken driving lessons and do take driving lessons every few years to help me recognize my limitations and work on my weaknesses how many here can honestly say that
I by no means a great driver and still do dumb things but at least I can say it and recognize it
Dearth, by your posts and Ski’s, you guys drive with common sense and good judgement.
I as well have had my skills checked, it’s a huge help as there are ruts we get in to and having someone check you out is great wake up call.
And having all the bells and whistles in a vehicle is great, providing they are used to assist and not drive for you, another good point.
Sure there are some bad drivers out there but we all pay taxes for proper road maintenance. How many times in the winter have you seen bad accidents because of poor road maintenance? The curve before the cement plant can be deadly because of the slope and many people are not aware of this. IMO the city could have been out and in some of these problem areas and salted when they new it had been raining and freezing. And no I don’t expect all the streets to be done all at once. Some people may think they are pro drivers but black ice may bite someday.
Doesnt take much to be a “pro” all you have to do is slow down and extra 5 seconds can make the difference between a powerpole and getting home
How many accidents due to poor road maintenance? None. Not a one. All the accidents I’ve come across have been due to the piss poor driver behind the wheel not driving properly due to road conditions.
Road maintenance has very little to do with driving conditions almost all of driving conditions has to do with the person behind the wheel
Sadly too many people don’t see it that way and choose to blame everything and everyone aroma no except the driver as apparently the driver is blameless in every accident
So I’m not saying this to use this as an excuse but from around 5:30 to 7:15 this morning the radio stations were all saying that is was +2 degrees and we were going to hit a high of 5 degrees. When my wife left for work, she came back inside and said that her car was covered in ice and that she had to scrape it. I was a little surprised by the amount of ice on her car. When I remote started my diesel, the elevated idle program kicked in meaning that it was pretty cold. When I got in the truck it was -3 and windows were iced over. When I hit Foothills it was icy. It got worse on the bridge deck and was bad all the way to 15th Avenue. You could actually see the ice crystals on the roadway. I was shocked by how icy it was and how far out the radio station was with their temperature number. I know that they get their readings from the airport and most times the numbers are maybe 1 or degrees off. This morning it was 5 degrees off. Again, not making excuses as you should be careful in all road conditions.
Drove a Cadillac CTS all wheel drive (borrowed from a buddy) with a really good set of winter tires and that car was incredible in the ice and snow. You would physically have to turn off the traction systems in order to get the car to slip. Although technology is one of the things designed to make vehicles better, it is by no means a replacement for driving skill gained through practice in all weather conditions. When I was teaching my kids how to drive, we spent time in CN Centre parking lot when it snowed pulling donuts and slides etc, in order to give them a grasp of what being out of control looks and feels like. I’m sure people driving by were thinking that we were some kind of idiot kid drivers out for a fun time. The last point is that even if you have the most capable car on the planet with the best technology and driving skill falling out of your butt, your only as good and as safe as the yahoo beside you with the hot coffee in his hand, the bald all season tires and one headlight speeding down the road.
The point is there are people that can drive on ice and there are people that can’t drive on ice and most likely will never experience it often enough to get good at it. Its called preventative maintenance by putting some salt on the icy patches before someone crashes. I would sooner see the road maintained properly to lesson the chance of a collision with the inexperienced driver.
Preventive driving = Slowing down.
In my opinion, drivers that have accidents and have the gull to blame someone else! shouldn’t be driving at all!! Take the responsibility of your own actions before you feel the need to look at someone else for your misfortunes. I have no idea what the stats are for accidents this time of year (by the time I tried to figure it out, the numbers would change) People need to pay attention to what the weather is doing and judge the road conditions accordingly! This is not rocket science!!
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