Residential ice ruts causing crashes and stuck vehicles, some Edmonton residents say
Derek Dupuis just happened to be outside for a cigarette Tuesday night when he saw a hatchback car smash into the side of one of his neighbours' pickups.
The collision was caught on his security camera. It shows the vehicle suddenly veer to the left before hitting the driver's door of a truck.
Dupuis believes the deep ice and snow ruts on his residential road are to blame.
“The car had so much pressure built up from trying to get over the rut, as soon as it grabbed the cement it just shot straight into the side of the truck,” he explained to CTV News Edmonton.
“It scraped all the way along and ripped the whole front end of her car off. I then immediately went out to make sure it wasn’t going to be a hit-and-run, and to of course make sure the driver was OK.”
Dupuis is not the only Brintnell resident that feels the ruts are dangerous.
“It's been honestly horrible over here. I'm lucky to drive a vehicle that's big and I have good tires, but I know other members of my family, other members of the cul-de-sac worry about getting stuck all the time. The two rows form and if you get out of those rows, you’re done,” said Kai Ongaro.
She said she hasn't seen any sign of plows on her street all winter.
“If people are getting into accidents and people are getting stuck daily, clearly something needs to be done about it,” Ongaro said.
As CTV News Edmonton was interviewing Dupuis in front of his house his security camera captured an Amazon delivery driver getting stuck in the middle of the road.
Dupuis said he sees vehicles getting stuck all the time.
Ice ruts in the Brintnell neighbourhood of Edmonton on January 26, 2023 (Marek Tkach/CTV News Edmonton)
“It just makes it more dangerous. And then they will make a rut outside of the main rut and any car that grabs that will shoot into one of the parked vehicles,” he said.
“I've contacted the city many times for our road and the last time this cul-de-sac was plowed was in 2019.”
Residential roads are at the bottom of the City of Edmonton's snow clearing priority list. The goal is to have all streets bladed to a five centimetre snowpack within eight days of starting a cycle.
Last week, while announcing the winners of the "Name a Plow contest," director of infrastructure operations Mark Beare said unseasonably warm weather delayed residential clearing.
On Monday, Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said some local streets are "impassable" and residents are frustrated.
A Phase 2 residential parking ban came into effect on Tuesday night so crews could begin blading.
A city supervisor said Thursday that she couldn't comment on crashes but that crews began clearing residential roads in Brintnell earlier that morning.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach and Karyn Mulcahy
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Budget 2023 prioritizes pocketbook help and clean economy, deficit projected at $40.1B
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.

BREAKING | Budget 2023 proposes across-the-board 3 per cent spending cut for government departments
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
Federal government capping excise tax on alcohol after outcry
The increase in excise duties on all alcoholic products is being temporarily capped at two per cent starting next month instead of a planned 6.3 per cent increase.
Freeland's green economy spending aimed at competing with U.S. Inflation Reduction Act
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says clean energy and green technology spending may not have been the big-ticket items of the 2023 federal budget if it weren’t for the need to compete with infrastructure spending in the United States.
Could Canada soon standardize USB chargers? Feds looking into it, budget says
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
Kids would rather learn from smart robots than less-smart humans: new study
A new study published by Canadian researchers suggests that kindergarten-age children would rather be taught by a competent robot than an incompetent human.
Was Stonehenge a giant calendar? New research suggests maybe not
Stonehenge's purpose has long been a mystery, with some researchers proposing that it may have been an ancient solar calendar. But now, new analysis suggests the calendar theory is unsubstantiated.
opinion | The gun control debate in America has been silenced
In the wake of another deadly mass shooting in America, that saw children as young as nine years old shot and killed, the gun control debate is going nowhere, writes CTV News political analyst Eric Ham.
Young children, the head of their school and its custodian. These are the victims of the Nashville school shooting
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.