By Tara de Ryk
Feb. 2, 2010

CRAIK-While a winter storm raged through Saskatchewan Jan. 24 motorists, bound and determined to get wherever they were going, headed out on to Highway 11.
Many wound up stuck between Girvin and Davidson where their progress was impeded by a good old-fashioned prairie blizzard.

Everything-from four-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, front-wheel drive and 18-wheelers -found they were no match for zero visibility caused by two feet of snow on the road whipped by wind into the air.

Craik RCMP report there were between 40 and 50 vehicles stuck on Highway 11 between Girvin and Davidson. These included cars, trucks, semis, buses and even a mobile home.

The quagmire was caused when a car got stuck and a semi jackknifed in an attempt to avoid it. Soon other semis were stuck and motorists found themselves going nowhere in a hurry.

The southbound lane wasn't any better. There, a STC bus was stuck, blocking the lanes.

 "I wish when this happens people would stay home," Craik RCMP Cpl. Gary Bonneau said, with a note of frustration in his voice. "I understand people have to get places, but it puts their lives and our lives in danger."

He said in conditions such as those on Sunday, it is nearly impossible for emergency crews to reach stranded motorists.

On Friday, Jan. 22, Environment Canada issued plenty of winter storm warnings, advising people that on Saturday and Sunday, much of central Saskatchewan would be in the midst of a winter storm.

The warnings were realized by mid-Saturday when snow began accumulating throughout the region.

It continued falling throughout the day and into Sunday, when the wind started picking up.

At 9:50 a.m. Sunday, Craik RCMP issued an advisory recommending against travelling on Highway 11 between Davidson and Chamberlain.

Conditions about 7 kilometres south of Davidson to Girvin were especially bad, with the highway being nearly impassable.

 "Some semis chained up and couldn't get off the road," Bonneau said.

Bonneau said plows from the Department of Highways couldn't get out to help, so he had the Department of Highways close Highway 11 between Craik and Davidson.

He said he feared that motorists, because visibility was so poor, would rear end vehicles that were stuck on the highway.

"I didn't want people plowing into the back of people stopped on the highway," he said.

The Department of Highways posted the closure on the Highways Hotline and put it on the notice sign in Regina.

"But people still come," Bonneau said.

RCMP were at the Craik highway intersection directing motorists into the town. For a time, Craik opened the hall to give stranded motorists a warm place in which to wait out the storm.

The entrances to the highway at Davidson were also blocked to traffic.

Davidson Fire Chief Clayton Schilling said it was quiet for the fire department and it received no emergency calls for fire or rescue services, which was a good thing because he said they wouldn't have been able to get the trucks out of the fire hall because of the snow.

"We'd do our best to try and get out there, but we couldn't have got out of the fire hall," Schilling said.

Schilling said he received a call from a Girvin-area resident concerned about the appalling conditions and worried that some motorists stuck on the highway may need help.

Schilling and Mike Beckie headed out to the area on their snowmobiles. Schilling said Beckie brought one motorist back to Davidson so she could get shelter in a motel.

Bonneau said by about 1 p.m. Sunday conditions began to improve and Highways' snowplows were able to get out and start clearing the roads.

"The Department of Highways did a real good job. By Monday afternoon you wouldn't know there had been a real bad blizzard," Bonneau said.

The only emergency call that did come in occurred Monday.

Bonneau said there was a collision south of Davidson on Hwy. 11 near the seed cleaning plant. A vehicle rear-ended another vehicle that was behind a snowplow.

Bonneau advises people to watch out for the whiteout conditions created by snowplows and to slow down when they see the "mini" blizzard.

In town, there were plenty of Good Samaritans out and about pulling and pushing vehicles out of snow banks.

The leaderonline is a division of The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada.