Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates wants to know why it took so long to close the Burlington Skyway Bridge during Wednesday's windstorm.
Gates questioned the Ministry of Transportation’s procedures for closing bridges during high windstorms after an empty transport truck toppled over from high winds on the Burlington Skyway.
“All I can say is we’re lucky no one was killed—I can’t imagine if the truck happened to flip the other way and land on a passing car,” stated Gates. “Frankly I don’t understand why it took this long for the MTO to close the bridge—we all knew there were severely high winds that day.”
Winds reached between 90-110 km/hr in Niagara and surrounding areas yesterday afternoon.
Just before noon, the truck flipped onto its side on the top of the Burlington Skyway Bridge.
OPP and MTO closed the bridge soon after saying the bridge was closed due to the crash and high winds.
The Garden City Skyway was closed later on in the afternoon.
“Why did it take an accident like this for them to act,” said Gates. “I travel across the Garden City Skyway regularly and I know how severe the winds can get up there—we could have had another, potentially deadly accident happen right here in Niagara.”
“At the end of the day, Ontarians deserve to be assured that our highways are safe especially in the face of climate change and the increasing likelihood of extreme weather events.” “We’re requesting that Minister Del Duca will review the MTO traffic management system to make sure the province is ready to deal with this kind of danger.”