One person was pronounced dead and two people were hospitalized for injuries following three separate incidents on Highway 401 near Chatham on Monday, Ontario Provincial Police said.
The incidents, which took place between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the eastbound lanes of the highway, resulted in the roadway being closed to motorists for around 12 hours.
Police said the first incident took place around 11 a.m. near Orford Road, when an eastbound tractor-trailer carrying salt caught fire. Details remain limited, but police said that as the driver tried to put the fire out, a tire exploded. The man was taken to a nearby hospital for injuries described by police as “life-altering.”
Then, around 2:30 p.m., police said they responded to a collision west of the fire scene involving two tractor-trailers and an SUV. One tractor-trailer driver was pronounced dead in the collision, police said. The driver’s identity has not been released.
The lone occupants of the SUV and the other tractor-trailer were not injured, police said.
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A little over an hour later, around 3:45 p.m., police said another collision occurred about 10 kilometres to the west involving a tractor-trailer unit and a pickup truck. The driver of the pickup truck was airlifted to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while the driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured.
The eastbound lanes of the highway were closed for hours between Kent Bridge Road and Orford Road. The roadway reopened just after midnight Tuesday.
No other information has been released. Investigations into all three incidents are ongoing, police said.
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