'Recipe for disaster:' Road rage leads to multi-vehicle crash on Hwy. 403 in Mississauga, OPP says

Four people were injured, two seriously, after a crash on Highway 403 in Mississauga. (X/ @OPP_HSD)

Four people were injured, two seriously, after a road rage incident led to a multi-vehicle collision on Highway 403 in Mississauga, police say.

Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said the incident occurred in eastbound lanes of Highway 403 near Mavis Road shortly after midnight.

Schmidt said some type of altercation broke out between the occupants of two vehicles, which resulted in one driver cutting the other off, slamming on their brakes, and coming to a full stop in live lanes of traffic.

“No lights on at all. The driver gets out of the vehicle (and) starts confronting the other driver,” he said.

“There were some items thrown back and forth, obviously some anger. I don’t know what precipitated this aggression but sometimes with a short fuse it doesn’t take much.”

Schmidt said while a number of cars “narrowly missed crashing into these vehicles,” eventually some motorists did get caught up in the chain-reaction collision.

One vehicle, Schmidt said, flipped onto its side and two other vehicles ended up in the ditch.

Firefighters had to extricate two people that were inside a vehicle that rolled over, Schmidt said.

Four people were taken to hospital but Schmidt said none of the injuries are life-threatening.

“This kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable. Midnight, dark car, no lights, road rage, stopping in a live lane,” Schmidt said. “This is just an absolute recipe for disaster.”

A 35-year-old driver has now been charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm and stunt driving, OPP said.