Tractor-trailer crash shuts down 401 at Brighton
BRIGHTON — One person was seriously hurt and a prisoner was injured after three tractortrailers jackknifed Wednesday morning during near whiteout conditions on Highway 401 at the Northumberland County Road 26 overpass near Brighton, Northumberland OPP said.
Two of the tractor-trailers jackknifed around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, closing the westbound lanes of the 401, about 75 kilometres southeast of Peterborough, police said.
The lanes remained closed until about 6 p.m. while OPP collision reconstruction technicians measured and documented the scene.
Weather and road conditions may have been a contributing factor, Const. Kimberly Johnston stated Wednesday night, and the cause remains under investigation.
A storm had dumped 21 cm of snow along the lakeshore.
One of the tractor-trailers collided with four other vehicles, police said.
Firefighters worked to free a trapped man from the wreckage of a cube van, police said.
Paramedics took one of the drivers to hospital with serious injuries, but there was no update Wednesday night from police on the driver’s condition.
There were several minor collisions as a result of the jackknifed tractor-trailers.
A prisoner transport vehicle was involved in one of the secondary collisions and one of the prisoners had some injuries, police said.
Westbound traffic was rerouted at County Road 40 in Quinte West and followed the emergency detour route to County Road 30 in Brighton back onto the highway during the eight-hour closure.
At 10:15 a.m., a third tractortrailer, carrying scrap metal, jackknifed in the eastbound lanes, about one kilometre east of the other collisions.