An “absolutely devastating” 14-vehicle pileup on a busy Ontario highway may be another example of truck driver inattention, an Ontario Provincial Police spokesperson said as investigators continued to comb through the wreckage.
The fiery crash on Highway 400 near Barrie, Ont., that killed at least three people involved two fuel tankers and a number of other transport trucks.
The collision occurred on Tuesday night, just days after OPP Commissioner Vince Hawkes said his force is putting transport truck drivers “on notice,” following three deadly crashes last summer.
Hawkes said OPP would be cracking down on transport truck driver inattention.
Tuesday night’s collision “may very well be another example of that exact scenario playing itself out with absolutely devastating consequences,” OPP spokesperson Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told reporters Wednesday.
While investigators are still trying to determine exactly how the pileup occurred, police said it appears that one transport truck may have failed to stop in time as it approached slowing traffic, causing the chain reaction. Weather and road conditions were good at the time, police said.
“There’s really no excuse for that transport truck to continue at the speeds that (it) did and impact the vehicles in the queue,” Hawkes, who also attended the scene of the crash Wednesday, told reporters.
The collision produced “massive” explosions and sent people running for their lives, police said.
“The temperatures that were achieved in this fire are apocalyptic,” Schmidt said.
After seeing the wreckage first-hand, Hawkes said “it’s a miracle…that we don’t have about 25 bodies down there.”
He added that crashes linked to inattentive or distracted driving are what police see “time and time again and the trend seems to be getting worse.”
In an email to CP24, Ontario Safety League President and CEO Brian Patterson said he plans to call for a coroner’s inquest into the deadly collision.
“The coroner is uniquely qualified to compel evidence to address this issue. Past inquests have resulted in significant change to make our roads safer and save lives,” he wrote Wednesday.
Hawkes said he thinks a coroner’s inquest would help highlight the issue of inattentive and dangerous driving, as well as draw attention to the responsibilities of individual drivers and transportation companies.
“The public has a responsibility, as well as all of the stakeholders, in order to prevent this from happening,” he said.
Just days ago, the OPP commissioner said provincial police are putting transport truck drivers “on notice,” after charges were laid in three separate deadly collisions involving big rigs.
Two of those crashes occurred on Highway 401, one near Port Hope, Ont., on Aug. 3, and the other in Chatham-Kent, Ont., on July 30. The third collision occurred on Highway 48 in Georgina, Ont., on July 27.
"This series of horrific collisions is driver inattention at its worst and the most tragic reminder in recent history of the tremendous toll on the lives of innocent citizens when commercial transport truck drivers are not paying full attention to the road,” Hawkes said in a statement.
“We are putting drivers on notice that the OPP will pursue every investigative avenue following serious collisions and hold at-fault drivers accountable to the full extent of the law."
The OPP said that, so far this year, up until Oct. 15, they have responded to more than 5,000 transport truck-related collisions. Fifty-six of those crashes resulted in 67 deaths.
Police also said that commercial transport trucks can weigh more than 60,000 kilograms, “generating tremendous momentum and energy when travelling at highway speeds.”
With files from The Canadian Press, CTV Toronto and CP24
