Cars pile up on Routes 2, 11 as blowing snow cuts visibility
Heavy winds and blowing snow have led to three separate pileups on Route 11 near Tracadie and Cocagne, and one on the Trans-Canada Highway near Saint-André and forced the closure of at least two bridges.
The first pileup on Route 11 happened around 8:30 a.m. near Pointe-des-Robichaud. The road is closed there indefinitely.
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One woman and two children were transported to hospital with minor injuries.
Image: A seven-car pileup near Cocagne has closed part of Route 11 for the rest of the day. (Submitted by Terry Girouard to CBC)
The second happened shortly before 9 a.m. at the Villa Des Amis school. One person was transported to the hospital with head trauma.
Each of these two pileups involved four vehicles and was caused by snowdrifts and zero visibility, RCMP said.
Around 10 a.m. a seven-car pileup closed Route 11 near Cocagne for the rest of the day, said Cocagne Fire Department chief Steven Goguen.
The pileup involved a transport truck, half-ton truck as well as SUVs and sedans, but resulted in only minor injuries.
"There was zero visibility," Goguen said.
He said the Jaws of Life had to be used to free two people trapped in one car, but they had only minor injuries. He could not say how many people went to hospital.
"Stay away from Highway 11 right now through Cocagne," he said.
A vehicle involved in the second pileup on the Acadian Peninsula left the scene of the collision. RCMP are looking for that vehicle and ask the person involved to check in, said Sgt. Marc Beaupré.
Other people involved in that collision do not know what the car looked like because they couldn't see well in the blowing snow.
Another pileup happened around 10:45 a.m. on the Trans-Canada eastbound near Saint-André. Five vehicles were involved, including two transport trucks and three cars. Three people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
RCMP Sgt. Michel Ouellette said blowing snow created whiteout conditions.
Two other vehicles went off the road on the highway, but Ouellette said they were separate accidents and no one was injured.
A short section of the highway is still blocked while the last vehicle from the pileup is being removed. Ouellette said he expects it to be open later in the afternoon.
RCMP are not recommending travel on Route 2 between Saint-Léonard and Grand Falls.
Environment Canada has issued a wind warning for the Acadian Peninsula and Bathurst and Chaleur region. Winds of up to 90 kilometres per hour are expected.
Village officials in Grand Anse and Bas-Caraquet have asked residents to stay off the roads. In Facebook posts, both villages say snowplows have been pulled from the roads and won't resume plowing until winds die down or there is an emergency.
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ROAD CLOSURES
Highway 11 from Janeville to Bertrand is closed. Travel is not recommended from Bertrand to Oak Point.
Highway 113 is closed from Junction Route 11 in Shippagan to the Miscou lighthouse.
The Tabusintac Bridge and the Green Bridge into Esgenoôpetitj are also closed.
Beaupré said he has asked the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to station personnel at each end of the Tabusintac Bridge to reroute traffic.
Anyone who tries to cross the bridge does so at their own peril, he said, since it is too dangerous for RCMP to respond to accidents in the current conditions.
CBC News was not able to confirm the request had been made to DTI or what the current plan to keep people off the bridge is.
Leo Ross lives at the end of the Tabusintac Bridge, and on a clear day, he can see straight across. But in this "old-time breeze," he said, all he sees when he looks out the windows not covered by snowdrifts is "plain white."
"The only time you can see it is when the gust drops down and you can see it for a little bit."
The bridge is part causeway, which means it's relatively low, so snow accumulated on the river ice blows across, not under it.
Ross said he saw a few cars cross earlier in the morning, and a police car go down with its lights flashing, but he said it's been a few hours since he's seen any activity.
"If people don't need to travel today, stay home," Beaupré said. "If they have to travel … use extreme caution because it's windy and there are snowdrifts all over the roads."
SCHOOL CLOSURES
Poor road conditions have also kept Francophone Northeast schools on the Acadian peninsula closed, as well as schools in Grand Falls, Drummond and Saint-André in the Francophone Northwest district.
Anglophone West schools in Grand Falls, Plaster Rock, Perth-Andover, Florenceville-Bristol, Bath, Centreville, Hartland and Woodstock are closed. Janeville School in the Anglophone North District is closed.
This article was originally published on CBC News. Includes files from Hadeel Ibrahim.