TORONTO — A 10-year-old boy has died from his injuries in hospital and is the fourth fatality in a multi-vehicle collision on Highway 401 near Whitby, Ont that also killed his 12-year-old brother on Friday night.
OPP said a man, a woman and a boy died in the pileup, in addition to the child who died Sunday, adding that as many as 20 vehicles, including three tractor-trailer trucks, were involved in the collision in the westbound lanes of the highway at about 10:30 p.m.
Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said the two young boys killed in the collision were brothers, aged 10 and 12, but that the names of the deceased will not be released until they have been positively identified and next of kin has been notified.
READ MORE: Child, 2 adults dead after multi-vehicle crash on Hwy. 401
Schmidt said on Saturday that the collision was an “unbelievable scene” with the damage so extensive that the vehicles were “not even recognizable as cars.”
Five of the injured were in critical condition with life-threatening injuries and another 11 suffered serious injuries and had been taken to hospitals across the region, Schmidt said.
He added that one patient was later upgraded from critical status and four people remain in hospital, one of them still in critical condition. Schmidt said the collision occurred at a construction zone.
“It appears that one of the transport trucks was travelling westbound and as traffic began to slow in front of it due to construction this vehicle did not slow down and continued right into the back of traffic,” he said.
Police said the initial collision caused the vehicles to be “pushed forward” in a “chain reaction collision sequence” and the driver of the initial transport truck was not injured.
WATCH: Hwy 401 multi-vehicle crash witness says that the screams from victims made him run over to the crash site to help.
Schmidt said the road was dry, there were no environmental conditions and visibility was good at the time of the crash.
The highway, which is among Canada’s busiest, was closed in both directions at the accident site until Saturday afternoon.
OPP and collision investigators continue to investigate the collision and are seeking witnesses.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Whitby OPP detachment at 905-668-3388 and speak with investigators.
With files from The Canadian Press and Rebecca Joseph
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