Friends of a Toronto mother killed in a horrific multi-vehicle crash, which involved a tractor-trailer barrelling through a Scarborough bus stop, are trying to come to grips with the loss.

Those who knew 39-year-old Surheir Hamed called her "wonderful."

Hamed was standing in a bus shelter at the intersection of Warden and Lawrence Avenues during rush hour on Wednesday when a tractor-trailer slammed into her and then plowed into a sporting goods store.

She was pronounced dead at the scene. Hamed's husband and their young child escaped unscathed. The child's stroller was crushed.

"After she had handed the baby to her husband, he had just naturally backed up to do what he was going to do with the child, and then the tractor-trailer came through," said Traffic Services Staff Sgt. Keith Haines.

Hamed's friend Iman Noureldaieu told CTV's Austin Delaney about what Hamed's husband witnessed.

"He said that when the truck came, he tried to pull her hand and he couldn't -- it was very fast," Noureldaieu said.

The tractor-trailer had lost control after colliding with a mini-van driven by a woman at the intersection.

The rig came to a stop after smashing into a Play It Again Sports store.

"I looked up and I saw the truck coming," recalled manager Ken Green, who hasn't slept since the accident.

"I saw the woman, it wasn't nice," he said, his eyes filling with tears.

The collision also sent seven others to hospital with various injuries. Three of the victims are children.

The driver of the minivan is in critical condition at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Her two children, aged two and 10, suffered minor injuries.

The middle-aged trucker is devastated by the accident, his boss said.

Wrong-way driver

Police believe the truck could have been triggered by the van driving the wrong way through the intersection.

"Apparently the black Ford van might have been travelling eastbound in the westbound lanes, it might have been at the intersection against a red traffic signal (when it) collided with this tractor-trailer," Haines said.

Another theory investigators are working on is that the van exited the nearby Tim Hortons, and wanted to head east but didn't realize there was a concrete median. She then drove east in the westbound lanes, colliding with the truck.

Meanwhile, a makeshift memorial has been set up at the scene of the crash in honour of Hamed.

With reports from CTV's Austin Delaney and Roger Petersen