snow toronto highway

Toronto is fed up with drivers who don't clear snow from their vehicles

There are worse things than waking up on a frigid morning to find your car covered in snow that you must then spend multiple minutes brushing off before driving to work  

Getting a ticket, crashing your car, or killing someone with a chunk of ice are just a few of those things.

People in the GTA are calling out those who hit the roads without stopping to scrape after a particularly shocking video of someone hand-scraping her own windshield while driving down the 401 went viral.

"It's unacceptable and unbelievable someone would put themselves in that kind of jeopardy," said OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt on Thursday in response to the clip, which was uploaded to Facebook by Gavin Gerbz.

"This is a very simple task to reach up on the roof and brush that snow off," said Schmidt. "That snow could easily freeze to a single sheet of ice and if that was to happen again, it could easily fly off behind the vehicle and smash into a vehicle."

Hundreds of thousands of people who've been commenting on different versions of that video seem to agree — some of them now following in Gerbz' footsteps by shooting photos or videos of similar situations and posting them online.

"Got a video of a truck traveling on Highway 50 with an iceberg on top that is enough to kill somebody if it falls off," wrote local driver Allan Lee in an email to blogTO after seeing the video shot by Gerbz. "Northbound Highway 50, just north of Rutherford road."

The snowier the Ontario city, the worse the problem seems to be.

And even if you're not technically "Bird-Boxing," you still legally need to be able to see through your back window.

Locals are tired of being put in dangerous situations despite taking the time to clear their own cars every morning.

It's not just illegal, after all — it can seriously hurt people.

So get to scraping, lest you land yourself a $110 ticket, criminal charges or a spot on the front page of Reddit.

Lead photo by

St. John's Ambulance Ontario


Latest Videos



Latest Videos


Join the conversation Load comments

Latest in City

Here's when Toronto could get its first snowfall of the year

Ontario child dies of rabies after contact with bat in their home

Canada just got a stunning new sundial coin that can actually tell time

Iconic 123-year-old Ontario bridge will be demolished and given futuristic replacement

Canadian parents can expect government payouts earlier than usual this month

Canada ranked among world's best countries

Canadian Tire store in Toronto under fire for mistreatment of workers

Ontario may still re-acquire 407 ETR to fix gridlock