Could snow fences in the Barrie/Innisfil area have prevented this week's pileup?

Could more snow fencing along Highway 400 have prevented Thursday's 98-vehicle crash, or at least mitigated the storm's impact?

Bruce Holtom, owner of FenceSource in Barrie, says it would be worth trying.

Snow fence is and has always been very effective. The higher the snow fence, the more snow it will grab, he said Friday. In most years, in most applications, one stretch of four-foot-high fencing does a good job.

You really do get lulled into a false sense of security when you have three or four mild winters, and all of a sudden it gets like this.

This clearly isn't like most winters. Just entering March there are already near-record snowfall levels in the Barrie area.

Thursday's squalls brought not only snow but gusting winds to the area, creating white-outs that led to the early morning, chain-reaction crashes on the 400.

Gary Lyon of Barrie said they might have been prevented.

Perhaps it would have made no difference in this case, but why has MTO not investigated putting up wind barriers along these open stretches of (Highway) 400? he asked. The greenest option would be trees, but something like the noise barriers you see along 400-series highways might help. Has this ever been studied?

The MTO, of course, is Ontario's Transportation Ministry, which is responsible for all things connected to the 400-series highways (see pullout).

Years ago we used to see a lot more snow fence installed than we do these days, Holtom said. Everybody's watching budgets (today), and we've had some milder winters.

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Could snow fences in the Barrie/Innisfil area have prevented this week's pileup?