There was a reason travel was not recommended on several highways in southeast Saskatchewan Tuesday.
Drivers who spent the night stranded can attest to that, like Mike Holfield, who said he was driving slowly through whiteout conditions when he went off Highway 39 near Weyburn around 7 p.m.
“I was only doing about, I don’t know, five to 10 kilometres an hour and just nicely drove off the highway right into the ditch, then before I knew it, I was in too deep and I had to stay here,” he told 980 CJME from his vehicle Wednesday morning.
Holfield said he called for a tow truck but no one came. When he called again at midnight, he was told it was too dangerous to send anyone out.
He spent the night with the vehicle running, occasionally getting out to make sure the tail pipe was clear.
“As I sat and watched the white out conditions, I couldn’t see much more than five feet in front of the vehicle and I just ever so often knocked the snow away from the tail pipe so I wouldn’t get any gaseous fumes in the vehicle,” he said.
“I pretty much endured it all through the night and watched it taper out this morning.”
Holfield said a tow truck arrived around 12 hours later just as a Good Samaritan came by and pulled him out. He said his first order of business Wednesday morning would be getting breakfast.