Icy road conditions are being blamed for a pair of crashes Tuesday morning in Maple Ridge.
A dip in temperatures overnight made roads across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley slippery during the morning commute, with accidents reported from Abbotsford to Langley, where a 61-year-old man was killed after his pickup truck slid off the road and flipped over.
Ridge Meadows RCMP said the S-curve on Dewdney Trunk Road was the scene of both crashes in Maple Ridge, but both incidents were minor with no serious injuries to report.
Maple Ridge road crews were glued to the weather reports all weekend as the forecast anticipated snow.
“We were chasing the weather pattern all week,” said director of engineering operations Russ Carmichael. “You kind of have to expect the worse.”
The entire works crew was on standby overnight Monday and into Tuesday morning, but a warming trend and rain washed away most of the brine. Carmichael said crews have to wait for roads to dry before they can re-apply brine.
Besides roads, the weather also made sidewalks extremely slippery.
Both the district and Ridge Meadows RCMP issued warnings about the slippery road conditions and asked commuters to drive with extra caution. Carmichael reminded drivers to properly scrape their windshields and slow down on side streets, which are more likely to be slippery than busier thoroughfares.
Environment Canada issued a special weather warning for Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, with between 30 to 40 mm of rain expected overnight. Northern parts of Metro Vancouver are expected to see up to 60 mm by Wednesday morning.