Traffic in the westbound lanes of Highway 401 just west of Mavis Road ground to a halt Thursday morning after a fuel tanker rammed into a large truck, triggering a chain reaction of collisions, police said.
The westbound lanes of the highway reopened in the late morning following the accident. The row of parked cars, stuck on the road while emergency crews cleared the wreckage, stretched for kilometres.
According to Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Cam Woolley, a fuel tanker driving in the middle lane failed to slow down for traffic and "rammed a group of other trucks."
He said three other "big rigs" were hit in the domino-effect collision, adding that one spun sideways and crushed a pickup truck. The pickup's driver was taken to hospital but was not seriously injured.
Woolley described the chaos in a phone interview from the scene.
"(The) eastbound (lanes are) stop-and-go with people looking over to see what happened," he told CTV.ca. "(Drivers are behaving like) a bunch of Looky Lous and rubber-neckers. It's a mess."
None of the vehicles' loads spilled, but diesel from the trucks' fuel tanks covered the highway after the crash.
Woolley said the driver of the fuel tanker was charged with careless driving.
