Two people died and three others were injured in a fiery crash on a busy highway in the Toronto area, police said Monday.
Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said the collision occurred around 9:30 p.m. Sunday on the eastbound collector lanes of Highway 401 in Mississauga, Ont.
He alleged the driver of a red Corvette was following another car too closely, made an unsafe lane change and clipped a transport truck. The truck then lost control, veered into another lane and hit a Mazda before slamming into a guard rail.
Schmidt said the truck burst into flames and its trailer, full with skids of water, mounted the guard rail and crashed into the eastbound express lanes of the highway.
The 34-year-old driver of the Corvette and a 77-year-old woman who was a passenger in the Mazda died in hospital, Schmidt said. The driver of the truck was unhurt, he said. Three others have since been released from hospital.
“This is the brutal reality and the consequences of potentially poor decisions on the highway,” Schmidt said.
The 77-year-old woman in the Mazda was “an innocent victim on the highway sharing the road and pays with her life,” he said.
Schmidt said police are asking anyone who witnessed the crash to come forward.
The highway was closed through the night as crews worked to clear the scene, which was littered with shattered glass, bent metal and the burned out shell of the truck.
Schmidt said the crash and the subsequent fire caused major damage to the concrete barriers that separate the collector and express lanes, which are being repaired by the Ministry of Transportation.
He said he and investigators later had a near miss as several drivers drove past barriers on the closed highway at highway speeds. Several of those drivers were charged, he said.