Ontario highway pileup sent drivers running for their lives
COOKSTOWN, Ont. (CP) — Three people were killed in a multivehicle pileup that sent a wave of fuel and flames rushing down a highway north of Toronto, prompting motorists to run for their lives, police said Wednesday.
Provincial police confirmed the number of fatalities Wednesday evening after first responders combed through the burned-out wreckage of some 14 vehicles.
“The damage to those involved vehicles is absolutely catastrophic,” OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told reporters near the scene earlier in the day.
“There are cars everywhere, twisted transport trucks, destroyed vehicles, metal that is unrecognizable as to whether or not it is a vehicle at all or not.”
Police said in a tweet Wednesday evening that the highway remained closed in both directions and Schmidt said cleanup of the scene was underway.
The crash took place in the northbound lanes of Highway 400 south of Barrie, Ont., late Tuesday night, when police said a transport truck crashed into slowing traffic, triggering a pileup that involved at least four transport trucks and two fuel tankers that spilled thousands of litres of fuel on the road. The impact caused a fireball.
“The temperatures that were achieved in this fire are apocalyptic,” Schmidt said.
“It is unbelievable to see that kind of damage and destruction from a motor vehicle collision.”
The names of those killed have not been released. Police also said several people were injured in the crash but have since been released from hospital.
On Wednesday morning, the area around the crash was littered with twisted metal, pieces of what looked like molten debris, and the shells of burned out vehicles. The highway itself was covered in soot in areas and Schmidt said molten aluminium from the wreckage was draining down the road.
OPP commissioner Vince Hawkes, who just days earlier had sounded the alarm about fatal collisions caused by distracted truck drivers, said the latest crash could have killed many more people.
“It’s a miracle that we don’t have 25 bodies down there,” Hawkes said, adding that he’s putting the trucking industry on notice.
Officials said the fatal accident had come less than hour after a three-vehicle collision that happened a few hundred metres further north on Highway 400.
Kevin Gallant, fire chief for the neighbouring town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, said heavy traffic from that collision likely set the scene for the pileup.