Sudbury man’s windshield smashed by snow dropped by plow on Hwy. 69

A Sudbury man is out $400 after a snowplow pushed snow off an overpass, smashing his windshield below. Mike Strickland says the city and MTO haven’t helped.

While grateful no one was hurt, a Sudbury, Ont., man is out hundreds of dollars after his windshield was smashed in a terrifying incident earlier this month.

Mike Strickland says he was driving his son to school in the U.S. recently when his vehicle was struck by a large load of snow from a snowplow overhead.

Strickland said he was headed south on Highway 69 in Estaire on March 23, when the region was still recovering from the massive storm that hit the area March 15-16.

Fortunately, he and his son were unhurt, but he said he is now stuck with a bill to repair his windshield, and he hasn’t been able to get a response from the government.

“It was early Sunday … probably around 3:30 in the morning, I was taking my son back to school,” Strickland told CTV News.

“We were leaving really early (because it’s) a 13-hour drive.”

He was driving under the overpass in Estaire when he noticed a snowplow going past overhead.

“Just as we were coming up to it, I saw what looked like a mountain of snow coming over,” he said.

“It hit my window (with) a loud bang. We immediately slammed on the brakes. We looked and our whole windshield was smashed …. glass all over our dash, too. So we turned around and went home and reported it to the city.”

However, officials at Greater Sudbury told them that plowing that area is the responsibility of the province, not the city.

Strickland, who owns the Strictly Nostalgia store in the Hanmer Valley Shopping Centre, said he got some help from Sudbury Toyota, which knocked the $1,000 repair bill down to $400.

But he hasn’t been able to get a response from Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation to find out if he can be compensated for the $400.

“There’s never any reply when you call them,” Strickland said.

“You leave messages and there’s never a call back. I just like to know who is supposed to be responsible.”

The fact that there aren’t safety measures in place to prevent this from happening “is mind-blowing to me,” he added.

Wants to know who is liable

“The amount of snow that was dumped over on me, you can tell it literally was the whole overpass,” Strickland said.

“It was probably the first time that it had been cleaned out since that big snowstorm that we got. So I don’t know. I just don’t understand who’s not liable and who is liable.”

While he has insurance, he said there’s a significant deductible — higher than the $400 he had to pay.

“It’s really frustrating,” he said.

“Especially in a time where money is tight, you know.”

He wishes now he had gotten out and taken photos as soon as it happened, but he said he and his son were in a state of shock.

“I was kind of frozen,” Strickland said.

“You’re not really thinking about taking pictures in the middle of a highway, especially at 3 o’clock in the morning when there are people around or transports around.”

CTV News has contacted the Ministry of Transportation for comment, but have not yet received a response.

RELATED STORIES:

• Sudbury struggles to clear sidewalks after record-breaking snowfall
• Snow forces Sudbury school bus cancellation after March Break
• Reduced parking at Sudbury’s hospital because of snowstorm
• Full recovery from major snowstorm still weeks away, Sudbury officials say
• Sault, Sudbury hardest hit by massive March storm