‘Make the safest choice’: RCMP advise caution on roads amidst Christmas snowstorm

Edmonton police are asking drivers to do what they can to ensure everyone gets to their holiday celebrations safely while driving conditions worsen.

With many in the Edmonton region preparing to visit family or friends for Christmas, officials are asking everyone to plan for extra time and to drive carefully as snow falls in the region and road conditions worsen.

AMA says it has a fleet of tow trucks ready to go and drivers will be working overtime.

“We have every available unit to us out on the road right now, including a lot of service providers working for us in and around the city of Edmonton,” AMA operations manager Brandon Klassen told CTV News Edmonton.

“Moving into this [storm], we’re sitting eight to nine hours [wait time] right now, but we’re expecting those to decrease as we’ve called in more drivers and plan for this event so that we can make sure that people get to where they need to be for their holidays.”

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Outside the city, Mounties are warning about dangerous highway conditions.

Police say Christmas Eve sees the same volume of traffic on highways as long weekends in the summer.

Wednesday’s storm could cause similar conditions to those that caused an 80-plus car pileup outside Airdrie last week.

“We’re going to see a significant increase of congestion on Alberta highways while people get to family and friends for the holidays. That congestion has its own issues, and then that’s combined with poor visibility, poor road conditions. It’s certainly the recipe for issues on the roadways,” Cpl. Troy Savinkoff with Alberta RCMP said on Wednesday.

“Just take in all the information and make the safest choice. Look at the road conditions. Consider waiting if roads are bad at that particular moment or not going in the middle of the snowstorm.

“Quite often road crews can get on top of the storm fairly quickly, clear the snow, put some salt out, and conditions can improve quite within an hour or two.”

Klassen says that advice could save you a call to AMA.

“Prepare for the journey, not just the destination,” he advises.

“Anything can happen in between. You could get stuck in traffic because there’s a car accident and get stuck on the highway for a couple hours.

“So just make sure you have an emergency road kit in your car that has things like a candle, cell phone chargers, extra food, gloves, just extra things to make sure that you and your family are safe if you do get stranded on the highway.”

Snow is expected to fall until Wednesday evening.

No snow is expected on Christmas Day, but more snow is forecasted again on Boxing Day.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Lampa