Ontario Provincial Police say an Ajax man has been charged after his car smashed into a pickup truck that crashed on Highway 401 in Toronto’s east end over the weekend.
Police and paramedics were called to the westbound lanes of the highway near Port Union Road at around 7 p.m. on Saturday with reports of a multi-vehicle collision.
The crash was captured on tow truck operator Adil Kanan’s dash camera. A white car can be seen driving at full speed toward the pickup truck, which was turned toward the median. A man was out of the vehicle at the time. After the vehicles collided, the force of the impact caused the occupants of the truck to go flying and the man was pushed into the median. The driver of the car cannot be seen in the video.
Two people were taken to a trauma hospital by paramedics in serious, but non-life-threatening condition and a third person was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said on Tuesday that a 64-year-old man from Ajax was charged with failure to slow down and move over and careless driving. The man, who hasn’t been identified, is scheduled to appear in court at a future time.
Schmidt noted the crash happened amid a campaign by OPP to target drivers who don’t slow down or move over for emergency vehicles and tow trucks parked at the side of the road.
“If you see a stopped emergency vehicle, police car, fire truck, ambulance or a tow truck, you are required by to slow down and move over. Give them some space to do their job,” he said.
“This could have easily been a fatality.”