As expected, it was quite the busy night for RCMP in Saskatchewan who responded and continue to handle numerous calls across the province following a winter storm that affected multiple regions.

Corporal Rob King with Saskatchewan RCMP described the past 24 hours as “extremely busy” for multiple detachments in the province.

He shared that over 180 motor vehicle collisions were reported to RCMP between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning. Over 173 of those reports involved vehicles either being abandoned or sliding into the ditch. However King suggested that it’s a very conservative number and thinks it’s at least double that.

“In speaking to our officers, many of them that would respond to one vehicle in the ditch earlier in the day would end up finding two or three more,” explained King.

“Most people wouldn’t report if they just slid off the road, hit the ditch and couldn’t get their vehicle out. So that number was probably well over 200 or possibly even 300 vehicles hitting the ditch over a 24-hour period.”

He clarified work is still being done on Thursday to get vehicles off the roads or out of the ditch.

“I know most tow truck operators were not working [Wednesday night] because it was too dangerous for them to be out,” added King. “I’d say a lot of people ended up staying the night in the ditch and hopefully they will be able to get their vehicles out sometime today.”

King is also urging the public to avoid highway travel as much as possible as crews continue to clean up from the storm’s aftermath.