Snow squalls blew through parts of southern Ontario Saturday, causing multiple-car collisions on major highways north of Toronto.

Environment Canada issued snow squall warnings, with up to 15 and 30 centimetres of snow expected throughout the weekend.

Snow squall warnings were issued for the following areas:

  • Barrie
  • Dufferin
  • Elgin
  • Grey
  • Huron
  • London
  • Sarnia
  • York/Durham

The agency also issued snow squall watches for: Oxford-Brant and Waterloo-Wellington, with weather activity expected to intensify Saturday afternoon and last until Sunday.

Multiple collisions

The northbound lanes of Highway 400 reopened at Highway 89 south of Barrie before noon Saturday after several collisions were reported in the morning, prompting the closure of the highway.

At least 40 vehicles were involved in collisions on Hwy. 400, with 15 vehicles involved in one pileup on Highway 89, OPP Sgt. Dave Woodford said. Many injuries were reported, but no one was killed.

The collisions occurred at around 9:30 a.m., amid a snow squall warning and freezing road conditions.

Woodford advised drivers to be aware of black ice in the “treacherous conditions” on Hwy. 400.

Driver Pat Kelly's car was among the damaged vehicles. He told CTV News he's surprised he and his wife survived.

"She weaved between the cars and we ended up clipping the back of the tanker and into the ditch. Yeah, we're damn lucky," he said.

Two sections of Highway 401 between London and Woodstock were also closed Saturday morning after a multi-car collision. Only minor injuries were reported.

Tow truck driver Rick Rudd spent much of the day hauling away damaged vehicles. He was hauling one car from a ditch, when he saw a car quickly approaching him.

"I turned around and saw cars coming up and I got out of the way. They were smacking into each other, spinning around and it all started from there, a chain reaction, going too fast," he said.

Meanwhile, power was restored in the community of Badger, N.F. after a mid-week storm caused an outage. The town lifted its state of emergency on Saturday morning.

With a report from CTV News' Atlantic Bureau Chief Todd Battis