{"id":440489,"date":"2026-01-29T08:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T08:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/440489\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T08:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T08:55:18","slug":"drivers-who-went-over-overpass-likely-not-driving-appropriately-for-snowy-conditions-opp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/440489\/","title":{"rendered":"Drivers who went over overpass \u2018likely not driving appropriately\u2019 for snowy conditions: OPP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OPP say the drivers of two vehicles that <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11638117\/highway-7-driver-dead-vehicle-launches-snow-overpass\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">launched over a snow embankment<\/a> in Kitchener, Ont., \u201clikely\u201d weren\u2019t driving appropriately for the conditions, leading to them losing control.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said in an interview with Global News that despite the snow on the side of the Highway 7\/8 flyover, road conditions were good.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe roads were plowed, they were salted and they were in as good condition as you could have barring the snowstorm that we were dealing with,\u201d Schmidt said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn both cases, there does appear that the drivers likely were not driving appropriately for the conditions on the overpass, ended up losing control and went onto the shoulder, which was covered with snow, and as a result of that, they ended up going over the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Police reported on Monday that two separate vehicles drove over the embankment.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The first was a cab driver whose vehicle went over the snowbank at about 2 a.m., though the driver was uninjured.<\/p>\n<p>OPP and Ministry of Transportation officials closed down the area as they investigated, but later reopened the overpass.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get the day&#8217;s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<p>Hours later, police said a second vehicle lost control and went over a snowbank onto the road below. In this incident, police said a 36-year-old woman from Waterloo, Ont., was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n<p>The ramp was again closed for an investigation. That probe into the fatal crash is still ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Roughly 50 vehicles involved in multiple collisions on Highway 401: OPP'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ND_5P_401_PILEUP-OC_VO_thumbnail_1280x720_.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t0:33<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRoughly 50 vehicles involved in multiple collisions on Highway 401: OPP\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Schmidt told Global News on Wednesday that the MTO and OPP are looking into all factors.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11639650\/opp-highway-401-trenton-collisions\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769676918_35_hwy-401-fire-trenton-pileup.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tAbout 50 vehicles involved in \u2018many\u2019 collisions on Highway 401\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11639752\/doug-ford-ice-vehicle-new-comments\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769676918_752_CP175416299.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tFord distances himself from ICE vehicle order placed with Ontario-based company\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look at human factors, mechanical factors, environmental factors, everything that could have been related,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are certainly issues that we always want to be able to exclude or include. What kind of tires? Was it traction control? Was the vehicle in good shape? \u2026 That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to determine and assess right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Global News reached out to the MTO for comment on the investigation and incidents but did not hear back by publication.<\/p>\n<p>Schmidt went on to note multiple vehicles drove that stretch of overpass during the night and morning, calling the two vehicles that went over the wall an \u201cexception.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo buses, and tractor-trailers and cars and SUVs and vehicles of all shapes and sizes had no problem navigating that,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how many hundreds or thousands of cars or whatever would have driven that ramp over those eight or 12 or 24 hours leading up to these incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Schmidt said that while plows were going through the area during the storm, the snow on the overpass could not be pushed over the wall as it would go onto the highway below.<\/p>\n<p>He reminded drivers travelling on overpasses or highways after a snowfall to remember that it\u2019s wet and slippery and can be dangerous. He added that snowy conditions, as seen Sunday into Monday, can make overpasses even more \u201ctreacherous\u201d with ice and snow buildup, so take it slow around the curves.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Canada<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OPP say the drivers of two vehicles that launched over a snow embankment in Kitchener, Ont., \u201clikely\u201d weren\u2019t&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,102848,44,29679,141244],"class_list":["post-440489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-car-crash","tag-news","tag-opp","tag-winter-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}