FLYING TIRE KILLS DRIVER ON 417
Charges laid after highway crash
Provincial police have charged a truck driver and his employer after a set of wheels flew off a commercial tractor-trailer Friday morning, crashing into a van that had been coming in the opposite direction and killing its driver.
The driver killed in the Queensway crash has been identified by police as Gennadi Brianski, 50, of Carleton Place.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, Daniel Mongeon of Gatineau, has been charged under the Highway Traffic Act with one count of driving a commercial motor vehicle with parts detached. Police say he was driving for the Ottawa-based company ICB Food Distribution.
The company has also been charged with permit operation of an unsafe commercial motor vehicle under the Highway Traffic Act.
The maximum penalty they could face is a fine of $5,000.
A witness described seeing an object fly off the tractor trailer and smash into the windshield of the white van before blasting through the roof like an explosion. The roof of the white van was torn off in the collision, which happened around 6 a.m.
All eastbound lanes of Hwy. 417 were closed just west of the Carling exit, backing up traffic for kilometres and creating havoc for morning commuters for several hours. Lanes reopened a few hours later.
The tractor-trailer that lost the wheel was travelling westbound on the Queensway, according to the OPP. The wheel jumped across the concrete median and struck the van travelling in the far right eastbound lane, said OPP Const. Guy Prevost.
The other driver had only minor injuries, according to Ottawa Paramedic Services. There was another four-car collision as drivers tried the avoid the debris on the highway caused by the first crash, but no one was injured, according to Prevost.