OPP have released a bit of an update on yesterday’s Highway 401 crash near Odessa that caused a full closure of the highway and major traffic backlogs.
Traffic investigators say the crash happened at 2:45 p.m., just east of the Odessa exit, when an eastbound tractor trailer travelling in the passing lane, approached traffic that was stopped due to a lane closure ahead.
The truck driver swerved into the right lane and hit an SUV, sending it into the ditch, then veered back the other way, through the steel guard rails, across the median and into the westbound lanes where it hit a cube van head on, before going into the north ditch, hitting a rock face and catching fire.
The driver of the cube van and other passers by pulled the unconscious driver from the truck while Loyalist Fire Services put out the flames.
The drivers of the three vehicles involved were taken to hospital with minor injuries and both sides of the highway were closed for several hours.
Charges are pending against the tractor trailer driver and police say single lane closures will be in place until about 3:00 p.m. as workers repair the guardrails.
