New York state resident charged in fatal QEW flying-wheel crash

A man from New York state has been charged after a flying wheel crashed into a coach bus on the QEW in St. Catharines last week killing one person and injuring three others, says the OPP.

The collision occurred last Friday shortly after 3:30 p.m. on the Toronto-bound lanes of the highway on the descending side of the Garden City Skyway bridge.

Ontario Provincial Police said that one of the wheels on a van came off and struck a pickup truck in the opposite lane before smashing through the windshield of a bus.

Images from Chopper24 show a tour bus with its windshield shattered and a minivan with a missing front wheel.

The incident killed a 48-year-old bus passenger from Toronto and sent three other passengers to the hospital with serious injuries.

It is unclear how many people were on the bus at that time.

In a statement provided to CTV News Toronto on Sunday, the OPP said that a 45-year-old male driver of a minivan, a resident of New York state, has been served with a Part III summons under the Provincial Offences Act for operating an unsafe vehicle. That offense is contrary to Section 84(1) of the Highway Traffic Act. He is scheduled to appear in court in Welland on Sept. 24.

With files from CP24’s Bryann Aguilar