Snow-choked crosswalk puts school kids in danger, says Winnipeg dad
'One kid is going to fall through it or fall off of it and hurt themselves pretty bad'
A Winnipeg dad says the city has put kids in danger by blocking a school crosswalk with a two-metre mountain of snow.
The city's snow-clearing crews have pushed and piled the snow right at a curve in the road where Tyndall Avenue and Huber Street meet.
But that spot also happens to be the start of a path that leads through a greenspace to Tyndall Park Community School, which also has playschool for kids as young as three years old.
"It's been piling up all winter … and they've never cleared it once," said Sheldon Kyryliuk. "No kids can get access to that [path] at all without climbing up that hill and falling down."
His 10-year-old daughter recently slipped back while trying to ascend the hill and nearly slid back down into the road as cars were coming, Kyryliuk said.
"It's a bad corner right there where [drivers] kind of got to hug the corner — right where the snowbanks were dumped. One kid is going to fall through it or fall off of it and hurt themselves pretty bad," he said.
"Many of us parents have had enough."
Kyryliuk asked the school about it but the pathway is city property. The school has called the city's 311 line numerous times but hasn't received any response, he said. Kyryliuk has also reached out to the city through email but has heard nothing.
"You phone 311 and you sit on hold. I'm running a business, I don't have time to sit on hold for three hours waiting for them to answer the calls," he said.
Winnipeg has seen 36 centimetres of snow in January, which is three times more than what was recorded in the same month one year ago, according to Rob Paola, a retired Environment Canada meteorologist who runs the popular Twitter account @robsobs.
The season total is now at 103 cm, almost 30 cm above average for this time of year, putting the city on pace for 150 cm, he tweeted, noting the 30-year average winter snowfall is 125 cm.
Kyryliuk acknowledged there's been a lot of snow but questioned the competency of the plowing crews.
"Anybody sees that it's a crosswalk sign, you don't dump piles and piles of snow on top of a crosswalk," he said.
"It's dangerous everywhere with the way the snow is right now. All these intersections … you gotta nose out into traffic to see if you got a clear road or not. They should be out pushing these snowbanks back farther so you can actually have a view."
Michael Cantor, the city's manager of street maintenance, said the city is managing as best as it can after being hit with five significant snowfalls that have required major clearing operations.
"We are very busy," he told Marcy Markusa, host of CBC Manitoba's Information Radio, on Tuesday morning.
As a result, the city has been focused on clearing snow from the roads but hasn't yet had a chance to tackle the mounds that have been left behind.
That will be addressed beginning this week and will likely take four to five weeks to complete, Cantor said.
"We will be hauling and reducing piles day and night," he said.
