Some commuters trapped for 8 hours as snow wreaks havoc in B.C.'s Lower Mainland
Frustrated commuters were trapped in cars and buses for hours on end Tuesday night as snowy conditions wreaked havoc on highways and bridges across B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
A series of crashes snarled traffic throughout the region, closing the Alex Fraser Bridge in both directions and causing major delays on the Lions Gate Bridge and around the George Massey Tunnel.
Semi trucks stalled and jackknifed on the Pattullo Bridge and the Queensborough Bridge as well, blocking lanes of traffic and contributing to a commuter nightmare that, for some, dragged on for upwards of eight hours.
Among them was Rajveer Kaur Bhatti, who decided to bus to work at Kwantlen Polytechnic University's Richmond campus on Tuesday after seeing there was snow in the forecast.
She spent seven hours stuck on a bus Tuesday evening, and didn't even make it halfway home to Surrey. The driver eventually told passengers they could step outside and walk to the nearby Nanaskar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple – still in Richmond – for shelter.
"That was the option he provided us, and without any doubt we chose that," Bhatti told CTV News on Wednesday after spending the night at the temple.
"They provided us with hot drinks. They provided us with phone chargers so that we can connect our phones and inform our parents, inform our families."
When she arrived, Bhatti said there were hundreds of other people already taking refuge from the cold inside, and others sleeping in their cars in the parking lot.
Road conditions were so poor and the delays were so long, some drivers described their commute as the worst they have ever experienced in the region.
Forecasters had issued a series of warnings earlier in the day, anticipating up to 20 centimetres of snowfall in parts of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley for the first major winter weather event of the season.
The traffic chaos that ensued was the result of a number of cascading issues, according to Mainroad Lower Mainland Contractors, the company responsible for salting and plowing highways and bridges across the region.
"Cars are sitting there idling and it's melting snow and then (it's) refreezing," general manager Darren Ell told CTV News. "Then more and more people start spinning out because they're uncomfortable with driving or their vehicles aren't prepared for the conditions, so it just creates bad on bad."
There were upwards of 40 plowing vehicles out on Tuesday, according to the company, but many drivers found themselves trapped in the same congestion as commuters. Ell suggested more people should have stayed home or delayed their drive to help prevent the issues that dragged into the early morning hours on Wednesday.
"People knew the storm was coming," he said. "But they all seemed to leave work at the same time, creating that congestion, creating that early rush hour and that just created the gridlock for us – we just couldn’t' get through that traffic."
CTV News has reached out to B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure for more information on what led to Tuesday’s traffic conditions. This story will be updated if a response is received.
With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Regan Hasegawa
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
'I have the will to live': N.B. woman needs double lung transplant
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Police officer hit by driver of fleeing vehicle in Toronto
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
Boeing is on the verge of launching astronauts aboard new capsule, the newest entry to space travel
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Suter scores late goal, clinches series for Canucks
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD worst-case scenario more likely after drug money laundering allegations: analyst
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.