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.
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.