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

5 Ontario megaprojects scheduled for completion in 2025

How Ben Mulroney spends his perfect Sunday in Toronto

What's open and closed on Christmas Eve 2024 in Toronto

New laws and rules coming to Ontario next month

Next phase of Gardiner Expressway work to begin and here's what to expect

Toronto will get more water taxis to relieve overcrowded island ferries

Huge earth-chewing titans will soon carve out Toronto's new $27B subway line

The most popular pet name in Toronto is the same for both cats and dogs