Snowy Smash-Ups
Chaos broke loose on GTA roads earlier this week as Southern Ontario saw its first major snowfall of the season—and all GTA drivers subsequently forgot how to drive in winter weather.
According to the OPP, more than 400 vehicle crashes were recorded on Nov. 11 after Southern Ontario witnessed the first heavy snowfall of the season.
“We’ve investigated at least 400 crashes in the last 24 hours,” said OPP Sargeant Kerry Schmidt. “There are 24 crashes on the go as we speak, and that does not include all the vehicles which have spun out and lost control on their own.”
Environment Canada issued a special weather advisory for Toronto on Monday evening as the city was hit with nearly 10 centimetres of snow overnight.
Schmidt blamed driver error for the startling number of crashes.
“Road conditions may play a factor, but driving pays the ultimate factor,” he said. “Driver error would be to blame in nearly all of those 400 crashes.”
Thankfully, the OPP said there had been no serious injuries reported in connection with the collisions.
Cats in the Car
When Natasha Ryce ran out to her car to grab something, she found that she had accidentally left her window rolled down and picked up a few feline stowaways.
The mother of five was visiting her parents’ farm and had left a full bag of popcorn, chips and ranch dressing inside the vehicle, leading a gang of at least six cats to invade its interior.
A video of the incident, which has garnered more than 8 million views on video-sharing app TikTok, shows the six cats going absolutely nuts inside Natasha’s vehicle. You can watch them bounce off the windshield, the dash, scramble up the leather seats, vault themselves off the centre console, and eventually fling themselves out the cracked passenger window.
“I was sitting by the pond with my parents when my daughter came running out and said, ‘Mom you have to look at this,’” said Natasha. “I have never laughed so hard in my life.”
Comments from video viewers have turned the clip into a running joke online.
“What cats do the minute you try to go to sleep,” joked one user.
Mushing in Montana
Authorities in Montana, U.S. dealt with a peculiar low-speed pursuit last week as they chased down a runaway dog sled in a snowstorm.
The incident was captured via dashcam from a police cruiser in Billings, Montana. The video shows the sled dogs—travelling rogue and without a driver—sprinting over an overpass and leading authorities on a low-speed chase for several blocks. Two police cruisers were involved, but the dogs remain unfazed as they attempt to slow them down, with the pack veering in between the cruisers at every chance they get.
Jen Mignard, the dogs’ owner, said she was out practicing with her pack when she fell off the sled—and her team continued without her.
“The dogs work together amazingly as my team,” said Mignard. “I thought, ‘Well this is no good,’ but I was sure they would just go back to my pickup.”
Mignard posted a local Facebook group for lost pets immediately after losing them.
“When I saw they didn’t make it back to the pickup I knew they went on quite the excursion,” she said.”
The pack was eventually stopped near a residential side street and Mignard picked them up from the local animal shelter the next day.
