SASKATOON — The Saskatoon Police Service has been a reliable community partner and has done its part in helping the vulnerable, especially during dangerous weather conditions like Tuesday’s snowstorm that affected the region.
SPS Public Relations and Strategic Communications Co-ordinator Joshua Grella said assisting the most vulnerable members in the city "is part of what our officers do on shift each day; this is not necessarily captured or measured by a specific call for service.”
“Our priority would be to ensure that the vulnerable are safe, have what they need, and or have knowledge of where they can go. If immediate police assistance was required, it would be provided.”
He said the Saskatoon Cold Weather Strategy was activated for this winter storm, which blanketed the city with 10 to 15 centimetres of snow.
The SCWS is a collaboration of various agencies, departments and community organizations that assist the homeless and other vulnerable persons during a weather-related event like this.
“During this winter storm, we continue to receive and respond effectively to various other calls for service, both of a criminal and non-criminal nature,” said Grella.
He added that there were 27 collisions that were reported and officers responded to in the 24-hour period, between 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday until 6:00 am. Wednesday. Two of the 27 collisions were reported to have injuries.
There were no calls of responding to trapped motorists as the drifting snow with wind gusts reaching 100 kilometres per hour, reduced visibility driving around the city or going in and out of Saskatoon. Some officers, however, assisted motorists whose cars got stuck in the snow.
“To the best of my knowledge, we did not respond to any calls of trapped motorists; last year’s winter event was a unique anomaly that required such additional police resources,” added Grella.
In a separate news release, traffic restrictions in the area of Lorne Avenue and Ruth Street East were put in place Wednesday evening after a collision between a semi-trailer and an overpass at said location. Both the north and southbound lanes of Lorne Avenue were fully restricted to motorists for at least five hours.
SPS lifted the traffic restrictions at Ruth Street and Lorne Avenue at around 10:00 p.m. the same day. No injuries were reported in the collision. SPS would like to thank the public for avoiding the area when they issued the traffic restriction.
