The eastbound lanes of Highway 401 in Cambridge were closed for several hours Friday following a fatal multi-vehicle collision.
Ontario Provincial Police said the crash happened on the stretch of highway between Cedar Creek Road and Homer Watson Boulevard.
Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said the collision involved two tractor-trailers and a dump truck.
It appeared one transport truck ran into the back of another, pushing it into the dump truck, which had slowed because of traffic in the area, Schmidt said.
One man, a 59-year-old from Ajax, was pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were reported.
“Absolutely devastating seeing this kind of trauma,” Schmidt said. “Apparently traffic was moving slowly prior to the collision taking place.”
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The eastbound lanes of the highway were closed for the investigation and the clean-up operation, but have since been reopened.
The collision comes a day after provincial police announced they were putting commercial truck drivers “on notice” in the wake of three crashes involving large trucks that claimed a total of six lives.
OPP Commissioner Vince Hawkes had announced Thursday that three drivers had been charged after their trucks allegedly crashed into traffic that was stopped or had slowed down due to road construction or a collision.
Two of those collisions occurred on Highway 401, one near Port Hope, Ont., on Aug. 3, and the other in Chatham-Kent, Ont., on July 30. The third occurred on Highway 48 in Georgina, Ont., on July 27.
-With files from The Canadian Press