Dash camera video showing a car smashing into a crashed truck at the side of Toronto’s Highway 401 over the weekend has police once again advising motorists to obey Ontario’s ‘slow down and move over’ law.
Emergency crews were called the westbound lanes of Highway 401 near Port Union Road at around 7 p.m. on Saturday for a multi-vehicle crash.
Adil Kanan, a tow truck operator with Metro One Auto Services Inc., captured the video inside his vehicle. A man can be seen in the video reaching into a green pickup truck, which was facing the median and obstructing the passing lane on the passenger side when a white car approaches at full speed. The car smashes into the rear of the truck and sends the contents flying into the air.
The force of the impact caused the man to be thrown into the median. A woman and a younger man were ejected from the truck. The woman landed face down as the younger man is able to walk away from the crash. The driver of the car cannot be seen in the video.
WATCH: OPP conducting blitz on ‘slow down, move over’ law. Jamie Mauracher reports. (Aug. 3)
Toronto Paramedics told Global News two people were taken to a trauma hospital in serious, but non-life-threatening condition and a third person was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
Kanan, who said he has worked in the towing industry for about five years and has responded to many collisions, said this is the first time he has seen something like this. He also said the crash highlights the need for additional policing and highway collision and roads personnel.
“It’s definitely shocking. I think after the fact of knowing that everybody was fine, it puts you at a little bit of ease,” Kanan said.
“It’s still a little bit scary. You can’t really prepare for something like this.”
The crash comes on the same weekend Ontario Provincial Police were conducting a long weekend blitz, targeting drivers who don’t slow down or move over for emergency vehicles and tow trucks parked at the side of the road.
Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said police are still investigating the circumstances leading up to this crash. Schmidt echoed Kanan’s calls for all motorists to pay particular attention to road safety as officers continue to conduct enforcement of the ‘slow down and move over’ law.
“This is exactly why we have this kind of messaging to remind people of the importance of it and how unbelievably dangerous it is to be on the highways,” Schmidt said.
“That could have easily been a fatal or a multi-fatal and amazingly no one was seriously injured in that crash. You look at that dramatic video and it’s breathtaking.”