Transport truck crashes with pickup hauling livestock on Montreal’s West Island

A crash on Highway 40 West prompted the closure of all westbound lanes on Wednesday, snarling traffic for hours in Montreal’s West Island.

Preliminary information gathered by police, indicates a 53-foot transport truck was attempting to make a lane change when it collided with a pickup truck hauling a trailer with livestock.

The crash happened at around 9:45 a.m. at the Anciens-Combattants on-ramp, near the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, said Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Geneviève Bruneau.

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Firefighters had to use the jaws of life to free the driver of the pickup truck from the wreckage. He was taken to hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries, she added.

Bruneau said a specialist from McGill University’s MacDonald Campus was also dispatched to the scene to ensure the wellbeing of the animals. The cows were transferred to a farm in Les Cèdres, according to police.

The highway and bridge were fully reopened to traffic at 2:30 p.m.

Nearly 87,000 vehicles a day cross the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge according Transports-Québec. It is the main gateway for commercial trade between Toronto and Montreal and it’s the busiest link for travellers coming on and off the western tip of the Island of Montreal.

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