Police seek answers after fiery crash
Deadly accident on Highway 440 was the worst in 25 years: witness
During the past 25 years, engineer Robin Borgia has seen the aftermath of numerous traffic accidents along a busy stretch of Highway 440 in Laval.
But the fiery, multi-vehicle crash that he witnessed on Monday afternoon was the most gruesome, by far.
“I saw a car trapped under a tractor-trailer and another large truck behind it,” said Borgia, who works for ACE expert-conseil, an engineering consulting firm.
One car was trapped under the 18-wheeler and a second was stuck under the right side of the large truck.
“Tires began exploding and the fire became very intense,” Borgia said in an interview. “We wondered whether it was propane tanks as well. It all happened very quickly.”
As flames emerged from the trapped vehicle and from the rear of a tractor-trailer, a truck driver jumped into his cab and pulled away to try to free the burning vehicle, Borgia said.
When some of the first police officers and a paramedic arrived, they had to jump a fence near the accident scene to reach the injured motorists, he said. Eventually, a truck driver reversed into the fence to create a gap wide enough for the first responders to race through.
The Sûreté du Québec are asking motorists who witnessed the fiery collision on Highway 440 in Laval on Monday afternoon to contact them.
Four people were killed and 15 injured during the crash, which involved two tractor-trailers and at least seven cars that were travelling in the westbound lane. The multi-vehicle pileup occurred near the exit leading to the interchange for Highway 15, which runs north to the Laurentians and south to Montreal.
One of the heavy trucks caught fire after striking a car in front of it and turning over. The flames spread to some of the other vehicles and thick clouds of smoke could be seen several kilometres away.
Several people were taken to hospital, including first responders who were overcome by smoke.
All four victims died at the scene, but identifying them could take time.
“The victims aren’t easily identifiable,” Sgt. Daniel Thibodeau said. “There’s also the vehicle identification numbers, but some of the burned vehicles are too damaged to make out those identification numbers.”
Investigators also hope to speak to survivors of the incident once their health allows it.
Peter Christakos was about 10 cars behind the vehicles involved in the accident.
He saw police moving people away from the scene and said first responders were treating two injured girls at the side of the highway.
“A first responder pulled someone out of the driver’s seat and after that things went up in smoke and it became hard to breathe,” he said.
Police allowed motorists to reverse on Highway 440 westbound and cross over to the eastbound lanes.
Borgia’s colleague Mario Lehoux said the configuration of the stretch of Highway 440 near the exit for Highway 15 is problematic and dated.
At rush hour, cars are often backed up for 400 metres to take the exit for Highway 15 north. The growth of Laval’s industrial park and the increased population density north of Montreal means the exit lane and service road are often very congested.
“Cars zip in front of trucks to take the exit and they merge too quickly,” he said.
Quebec Transport Minister François Bonnardel agreed that changes need to be made to the configuration of Highway 440 near Highway 15, even though little is known about the cause of the crash. The section of Highway 440 where the accident happened has been the site of about 10 accidents since 2013, he said.
In the short term, safety in the area will be improved by extending a double line that forbids drivers from merging at the last minute to exit the highway and access the service road.
“We will do it to change the behaviour of drivers, to stop them from entering at the last minute,” Bonnardel said, noting that roughly 300,000 vehicles use Highways 440 and 15 daily.
In the longer term, Bonnardel said an assessment will be done across the province to identify spots where similar measures are needed.
The minister noted that a lot of interchanges in Quebec — many of which are just as heavily travelled — have configurations that are 40 to 50 years old.
Anyone with information about the crash should call provincial police at 1-800-659-4264.