A woman has been rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries following a multi-vehicle crash involving a dump truck in Oshawa.
It happened near Harmony Road and Tennyson Avenue, near the Highway 401 overpass, shortly before 8:30 a.m.
Durham Regional Police Const. George Tudos said five vehicles were involved in the crash, one of which was a full, “loaded dump truck.”
A two-month old baby, its mother and another female in one of the vehicles all suffered minor injuries in the crash and were taken to hospital as a precaution.
“That child will be okay. That child was looked at by EMS,” Tudos told CP24.
The woman who suffered life-threatening injuries was in a second vehicle.
Tudos said at one point she was trapped in her vehicle.
Video from the CTV News Toronto helicopter shows the front of the dump truck crushed up against the rear of a car.
Tudos said emergency services extricated the woman from the wreckage and was taken to a local hospital in Oshawa. Police confirmed that she was airlifted from there to a Toronto-area hospital a few hours later.
A CTV News Toronto reporter on scene said he witnessed the victim’s sister attend on the scene. She reportedly burst into tears and rushed to her own vehicle after police confirmed that her relative was involved in the accident.
“We’re still waiting on an update from hospital on that person,” he said. “I know that it was serious enough that our traffic services branch has been requested to attend the scene.”
A man who identified himself as the father of the young child injured in the crash told CP24 that his wife and young daughter are both “really shaken up” but doing alright.
“I was on my way to work, so I quickly turned around and rushed right over here. It’s obviously nothing you want to hear right away… first thing in the morning,” he said. “I was really nervous but when we went to the hospital and they checked her over, it was a sigh of relief.
He said his wife was stopped in a lane of traffic when she was rear ended “pretty significantly.”
“She said everything happened pretty quickly after that,” he said. “She’s doing alright. She went to the hospital and they cleared her. Our daughter is okay too. She’s banged up but they’ve released her from hospital so she’s at home recovering.”
Police anticipate the immediate area to be closed to traffic for “several hours” while they investigate.
“This is one of the major on ramps to Highway 401 and this was at 8:20 this morning, so this was just before rush hour as everyone was trying to get to work,” Tudos said.
“We’re asking people to use any alternate exits or entrances to the 401.”
He suggested motorists avoid Bloor Street, which turns into Harmony Road.
“We’re trying to work with the local transit and make alternate routes for cars that are stuck in that area to try to try and get them out of there as soon as possible,” he said.
Investigators are urging any motorists who may have driven by the crash scene this morning to call them to report what they saw.
“At this point we are looking for witnesses. This is a very busy area, (there are) a lot of people trying to get onto the 401 to try and get to work,” he said. “I know that people may have not stopped to give information so we ask that they contact our traffic services branch.”
Residents who live near the crash scene said the Harmony Road is often dangerously busy.
“It’s horrible, it’s like the 401 ramp,” one woman, who did not provide her name, told CTV News Toronto. “I try to cross here somedays with my dog while on a walk and I have a walker… it’s dangerous. You can’t even cross this road.”
