As temperatures fell below 0 degrees Wednesday evening, water left behind from the melted snow froze, making sidewalks in the Greater Montreal area particularly slippery on Thursday.
TVA Nouvelles also experienced three crashes in less than five minutes on Boulevard L'Assomption in Montreal.
“I think they're doing their best, but the sidewalks still need a little improvement,” noted a passerby.
“Dangerous! added a man. It's not bad, more than dangerous, it's hard.”
Thursday was a busy day for Urgence santé.
“There has been a fairly significant increase in falls since 10 or 11 a.m.,” explains Jean-Marie Dufresne, head of intervention at Urgences-Santé.
Montreal city administration spokesman Philippe Sabourin said Tuesday he wanted to be “obsessed with sidewalks.”
“Yesterday we first had snow, then a large amount of water, 20 millimeters,” he said. A drop in the mercury at the end of the day, and in some places it's perfect everywhere, but in some places we need to come back. With all the water we had, the small stone and salt were trapped between two layers of ice.
“This is unacceptable,” he continues, standing on an icy sidewalk. It's slippery, it's dangerous. We are asking the district to intervene.”
There is no shortage of examples, as sidewalks that look like ice rinks can be seen on Avenue Pierre-de-Coubertin, next to the Olympic Stadium and on Boulevard de Maisonneuve.
For the full report, watch the video above