Over the weekend several motorists were stranded on area highways around Moose Jaw after a fall snowstorm slammed into the region, causing treacherous conditions for drivers.
People all over southern Saskatchewan were constantly checking the road conditions on the provinces Highway Hotline website to get constant updates on road conditions and closures.
Steve Shaheen, Ministry of Highways Senior Communications Consultant says that web traffic significantly increased before, during, and after the storm.
“The hotline had approximately 977,000 website page views and that’s in addition to the number of calls received Saturday through Monday night, which would have been in the neigbourhood of 4,350 calls,” says Shaheen.
He mentioned that this significant boost in website activity is common throughout a winter storm event like the one the area saw on Sunday.
On Sunday, all highways coming into and exiting Moose Jaw were shut down due to the white-out conditions, including the TransCanada Highway that was closed from Regina all the way to Swift Current.
The majority of the highways opened back up on Monday morning.
Motorists were stranded on highways for hours and some even hit the ditch due to the heavy snow, with some having to leave their vehicles.
You would think that with all that traffic in a two-and-a-half-day period that website would’ve crashed, but Shaheen says the Hotline is built for a lot of visitors.
“We handle a lot of website traffic on an annual basis. Last year with all the weather events that we had, we had in the neighbourhood of 14 million visitors to our website.”
Shaheen added that in an average year, the website sees roughly 6.5 million visitors to Saskatchewan’s Highway Hotline.
He concluded by reminding motorists out on Saskatchewan roads this winter to check the Highway Hotline early and often, as the weather conditions can change very rapidly when dealing with a severe weather event.
Those that want to phone in and report road conditions can do so by calling 1-888-335-7623.