Saskatoon woman's Jeep winds up upside down after hitting snow ridge on University Bridge

When Mikhayla Sauverwald-Ricard left her Saskatoon home to drive her mom to work on Wednesday, Feb. 2, she knew the roads were a bit icy.

It was two days after the blizzard that paralyzed much of the province, closing highways and stranding hundreds of drivers.

As the 24-year-old turned from Spadina Crescent onto the University Bridge that morning her Jeep Liberty hit ice and veered into oncoming traffic.

Sauverwald-Ricard managed to right the vehicle before hitting another patch of ice that sent her toward a ridge of snow built up along the bridge.

The snow ridge was the result of grading done to clear the road following the blizzard.

Sauverwald-Ricard thought the snow bank would stop her vehicle in its tracks. Instead, the rock-hard snow ridge acted like a ramp and flipped Sauverwald-Ricard's Jeep onto its roof.

"The snow bank was a lot harder than I ever expected," she said.

"We ended up trying to go look at the snow bank where I had hit and you could barely see the tire prints where my vehicle went up."

The crash left Sauverwald-Ricard suspended upside down in her vehicle.

She managed to get herself out unharmed, aside from some soreness and one missing fingernail. 

"I know that if the snow was not piled up like that I would probably not have flipped my vehicle the way that I did. I most likely would have just come to an abrupt stop and not toppled over."

This isn't the first time a snow ridge on a Saskatoon bridge has been blamed for causing an accident.

In 2013 a woman driving on North Circle Drive lost control of her car which then went over the bridge and into the frozen Saskatchewan River. The woman escaped and police blamed the accident on a buildup of ice and snow along the sides of the bridge.

Asked about the crash, City of Saskatoon spokesperson Mark Rogstad said the city's level of service document requires that all priority and high traffic streets be graded within 12 hours of a significant snowfall ending.

The document also states that the city has six days after a snowfall ends to remove ramping hazards from Circle Drive.

The information provided didn't mention requirements for removing ramping hazards from University Bridge.

Goran Saric, director of roadways, fleet and support for the City of Saskatoon, said University Bridge is a priority street and is graded within 12 hours of snowfall of more than five centimetres ending. 

But because of provincial environmental restrictions, the snow from the road — which contains salt — cannot be pushed off onto the river bank.

"We come back with snow blowers and basically blow that snow into trucks and haul away," he said.

"Our crews constantly keep an eye on the bridges, monitor them. And you know our goal is not to have ramping hazards at all."