Freezing rain, which coated much of Montreal and surrounding areas, caused havoc for commuters Friday, resulted in hundreds of accidents and even left children abandoned outside closed schools.

A coating of freezing rain caused havoc in Montreal and surrounding areas and resulted in numerous accidents. Even the salt trucks were having difficulty travelling the roads. (CBC)

The storm moved out of the region by noon, but left most of the residents frazzled from the early blast of winter.

And long delays on public transit in Montreal and Laval saw commuters, as well as the bus drivers, blaming the city for the chaos that led to delays of up to two hours.

"I was pissed. I wasn't too happy because I don't like getting to work late," said Suzanne Bibaud, who waited more than two hours for a bus to take her from LaSalle to downtown.

Sonia Allen, who was trying to get to work from Dorval, blamed the city for the delays.

"They [the city] knew this was coming. They could have done something," she said.

Tom Mouhteros, head of the bus union, said many city buses couldn't leave the garages because the roads weren't salted. He said at least two accordion buses jackknifed and others were involved in accidents.

"If they want to blame someone, tell them to blame the city for not putting salt down," he said. "You cannot drive a vehicle at top speed. What do people expect?"

But Michel Frenette, a spokesman for Montreal's snow removal operations, said the city did the best it could during the early morning storm to salt and sand the roads and sidewalks.

"We cannot spread a long time in advance because the pedestrians will carry away whatever we put on the sidewalks or on the streets," he said.

School closures

The slippery conditions resulted in numerous accidents around the region including a number of serious accidents on the highways including a 15-vehicle pileup southbound on Highway 30 near the Trans-Canada Highway.

It also resulted in injuries to pedestrians who faced treacherous treks to work. Montreal emergency rooms filled up with people suffering fractures and bruises after falling on icy sidewalks. Ambulance crews received hundreds of calls with 90 per cent of them dealing with falls on sidewalks.

The storm also forced the closure of numerous schools in the area and, in at least one case, confusion.

Notre-Dame Elementary School in La Prairie was closed because of the bad weather, but some parents were not aware of the cancellation. A handful of kids were dropped at the school and left there in the cold by parents who hadn't heard about the closure, including an eight-year-old girl.

"A few kids were there but the parents came back and picked them up, except for one girl," said Rene Fleury, a spokesman for the Rousillon Police.

Fleury said a male driver noticed the lone girl and stopped to ask if she needed help, but this resulted in a misunderstanding with another person.

"Somebody else, concerned about the situation, stopped also, and there was a verbal altercation between the two people because the last one was thinking maybe he was a child molester," Fleury said.

Fleury said police sent extra patrols to other schools to make sure no other children were stranded.