Snowed-in Scarborough seniors felt 'trapped in their home'
Raymond Knight says a city plow driver simply refused to help
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A Scarborough man is angry after he says his driveway was snowed in by a city plow operator who drove down his street and pushed so much snow onto his entrance, he “felt trapped in his home.”
“We are seniors and I have cancer. And we both got over COVID last year,” said Raymond Knight, 80, who lives in the Lawrence Ave. and Markham Rd. area of Scarborough.
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Snowed-in Scarborough seniors felt 'trapped in their home' Back to video
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“We can’t do certain things we used to do when we were younger and part of it was shoveling that snow yesterday. Unbelievable”
When he and his wife saw how much snow had not just accumulated, but been plowed toward their home, they were worried about how they could get out in a rush.
One of their biggest fears right now is the potential for a medical emergency.
After both Knight and his wife battled COVID-19 last year, he said it left them reeling for a month and a half.
“I hesitate to think what may happen if we have either a medical emergency or a fire and emergency crews are unable to get through,” Knight said.
Their first instinct was to ask one of the plow drivers still on their street.
“Our next-door neighbour flagged down a city snowplow operator who may have even been the one that plowed us in in the first place, and asked him to clear the front of our driveway,” Knight said, and claimed the driver “flatly refused and was even rude to my neighbour.”
Their second instinct was to call the city’s 311 hotline.
Knight said he just could not get through to that service for most of Tuesday.
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During their weekly COVID-19 update, city officials addressed snow removal.
“We appreciate there were instances where a road plow had placed the snow over to the side and may have blocked the front of the driveway. We do have a follow-up service with another piece of machinery that will clear that snow from the driveway,” said Vincent Sferrazza, Director, Operations and Maintenance, with Transportation Services.
City officials said the sheer amount of snow covering the city is keeping crews busy around the clock.
Ultimately, Knight’s son cleared the massive pile of snow that was leaving him feeling barricaded in his home.
It took four hours of shoveling on Wednesday.
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