The evening rush home was a difficult one Monday as two serious car accidents clogged traffic on two busy Ontario highways.
A large passenger bus carrying 48 people -- reportedly tourists from Mexico -- crashed on the Queen Elizabeth Way at around 5:15 p.m. The bus rolled over into a ditch
Authorities say about 11 people were injured in the accident.
A second vehicle also landed in the ditch but it did not collide with the bus.
The accident happened just east of Appleby Line in Burlington on the eastbound lanes of the busy highway.
Emergency crews were on site, rerouting traffic through the area.
Meanwhile, the Ontario Provincial Police were dealing with another accident north of Toronto on Highway 400.
Highway 400 in King City was clogged for most of the afternoon after a serious traffic accident involving a maintenance truck and a tractor trailer.
A large truck carrying steel narrowly missed a maintenance crew working on patching potholes when it slammed into the back of their stopped vehicle.
The impact of the accident was so strong that it spun the maintenance vehicle around and tore off the front axle of the tractor trailer. The fuel tank of the truck was also punctured and a few hundred litres of fuel spilled onto the roadway, Sgt. Cam Woolley with the Ontario Provincial Police, told CTV.ca.
A woman sitting behind the wheel of that car was sent to hospital with minor injuries. The truck driver and the maintenance crew were not hurt in the accident.
"If you get hit by a tractor trailer and walk away, it's a good day," one of the maintenance workers said to CTV Toronto.
Woolley said the thick back of the maintenance vehicle -- often called a "crash truck" -- is designed to take the brunt of the impact in case of an accident.
A "crash truck" is used by maintenance workers repairing the road. It is meant to protect the crew from vehicles passing by at a high speed.
"It did what it was supposed to do," he said.
The maintenance worker said if the "crash truck" wasn't where it was at the time of the accident, he'd "be looking like the flare there on the ground - flat."
The accident happened at about 2 p.m. in the southbound lanes of Highway 400 near King Sideroad.
The truck driver appeared to be driving at the speed limit at the time of the accident, Woolley said. No charges have been laid against the driver but Woolley said that could change as the police investigation continues.
Woolley said the southbound lanes have been reduced to a single lane while a rapid-response team cleans up the site. Traffic was backed up on both sides of the highway as crews closed down a lane on the northbound lanes of the highway as well.
All lanes were expected to be reopened by 6 p.m.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Austin Delaney
