Two people were killed in a collision on Highway 401 in Mississauga on Wednesday morning, in a crash that snarled one of North America's busiest highways for hours and prompted an appeal for witnesses. Provincial police said the crash happened in the eastbound express lanes near Dixie Road shortly after 9 a.m., turning the routine morning drive into the scene of a deadly emergency response.
Emergency crews who rushed to the highway found several people hurt. In all, paramedics assessed five patients at the scene, and it quickly became clear that two of them could not be saved. The two victims were pronounced dead at the site of the crash, while the others were assessed and prepared for transport to hospital as investigators began to piece together what had happened.
Police later identified the two who died as an 80-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman, both of them from Cambridge. According to the Ontario Provincial Police, the pair had been travelling as passengers in a silver Honda CR-V at the time of the collision, and neither survived the impact that unfolded in the fast-moving express lanes.
Investigators said the CR-V was struck from behind by a Mercedes SUV, a description that has become the central detail in the early stages of the inquiry. The force of that rear-end collision proved catastrophic for the two passengers, and police have not yet said what led up to the crash or whether any charges are being considered as the investigation continues.
Three other people caught up in the crash were taken to hospital for treatment. Officials did not release detailed information about their conditions, but the toll of two dead and three others hospitalized underscored the severity of a single collision on a stretch of highway that carries enormous volumes of traffic through the Greater Toronto Area every day.
The aftermath brought major disruption to the corridor. The eastbound express lanes of Highway 401 were shut down in the area, along with the transfer from the collector lanes to the express lanes, as crews worked the scene and conducted their examination. Parts of the eastbound highway remained closed for several hours before they were gradually reopened to traffic later in the day.
The Ontario Provincial Police said their investigation into the collision was ongoing and appealed to the public for help, asking anyone who witnessed the crash or who may have relevant dashcam or other footage to come forward. For a family in Cambridge and for the travellers who shared the road that morning, an ordinary commute had ended in a tragedy that authorities are now working to fully explain.