Video captures moment Toronto snowplow rams into parked car

A video captured by a Toronto resident last week shows the moment a city snow plow rammed into a parked car and kept driving.

The City of Toronto is now investigating the incident, one of several such crashes amid the biggest snowfalls in at least a decade, as observers point to new technology as one way to reduce crashes.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Alex Oprea, an occasional teacher, who was with kids at David Lewis Public School when it happened on Feb. 3.

Oprea took pictures, and then started sleuthing — discovering a video of the incident taken by a neighbour.

The video shows the plow turn right from Fundy Bay Boulevard to Innislawn Road at 10:37 a.m., before hitting Oprea’s grey civic. The car moves noticeably in the video.

“I didn’t believe it was that bad until I saw the car shake. No way someone couldn’t tell that they hit my car,” Oprea said in an interview. “What upset me most is that no one left a note.”

By Monday, Oprea had spoken with the manager of the company operating the truck, D. Crupi and Sons, who told CTV News Toronto in an interview that the company had checked its own GPS records and its own dash cameras.

“We found that the driver had seen what he did, and drove by again after the fact, and found the damage, and didn’t report it to us,” Dominic Crupi said.

“We’re actually meeting tomorrow with the supervisor to decide what the disciplinary measures will be,” he said.

The City of Toronto said in a statement, “Transportation Services is currently investigating this incident and the appropriate corrective action will be taken pending the outcome of this investigation.”

It’s not the only such crash that the city is looking into. In December, a plow as caught on video going through a family’s retaining wall.

Last year, two children were injured in Whitby in a snowplow crash.

Dennis O’Neil, who teaches plow operators at the Association of Ontario Road Supervisors, said driving a plow is a complicated job that requires training and attention.

Having looked at the video, he said the driver should have stopped after the crash and reported it. Before the crash, the driver could have stopped in advance, picked up his plow, and readjusted to make sure he got around the car.

“That driver is trying to perform multiple operations. He’s monitoring the product to melt the snow. He’s trying to get as close to the curb as he can to get the snow off the road and not hit the curb on the opposite side. Typically the visibility is not good,” he said.

A job that was once done by two people is now done by one, O’Neil said.

An Ontario company is testing new technology that might make the job simpler: an artificially intelligent plow called “Archimedes.”

The technology manages how much salt is spread based on where the truck is, taking into account concerns about nearby water and the environment.

But the product was first conceived of to make the job of a plow operator safer, said Chris Passmore of Flodraulic.

“To really simplify it, an operator really needs to worry about salt, plowing and driving,” Passmore said. “We will figure out how much salt you need, and the operator just drives.”

Archimedes is being piloted in three jurisdictions in Ontario.

Oprea said he wants the whole experience to be a positive one, with lessons learned to be accountable for your actions, and he also wanted to thank the neighbours for giving him the video that was key to figuring out what happened with his car.

He also said one neighbour offered to let him park his car in his driveway so it wouldn’t be in the plow’s path on the street.