Police silent on 406 shutdown
GRANT LAFLECHE
The Ontario Provincial Police and the Niagara Regional Police won’t say why Highway 406 was closed for around four hours Thursday night.
The highway was shut down for an OPP investigation shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday and was not reopened until about 9:15 p.m., said OPP Constable Lauren Ball.
Eye-witness say they saw a truck with a damaged trailer being towed from the area shortly after 8 p.m.
However, Ball refused to say why the highway was closed. When asked why the OPP would not comment on the closure of a major highway, Ball directed the Standard to the NRP for further details.
In an email, NRP spokeswoman Stephanie Sabourin said there was a “fatal incident” on the highway, but “out of respect for the privacy of the individual involved and their family we will not be commenting further at this time.”
Sabourin said the NRP would not provide any details about why the highway was closed and directed the Standard to the OPP for further comment.
“In circumstances such as these we would rarely, if ever, release the person’s name out of respect for them and their family’s privacy,” Sabourin wrote in an email.
The Standard requested an interview with the NRP acting chief or deputy chiefs but was told by Sabourin it would be “inappropriate” for them to comment on an OPP investigation.
Police will withhold the names of victims of traffic collisions at the request of a victim’s family, and almost never release the name of a person who died by suicide.
The Standard typically does not publish the details of a death by suicide unless it becomes a public incident or involves a person of public interest.
Neither the OPP nor the NRP would say if the incident Thursday night on the 406 was a suicide, nor if anyone but the deceased person was injured.
glafleche@postmedia.com Twitter: @grantrants