Three people are dead and two others injured after a serious crash on the roads of Kawartha Lakes. The collision involved four motorcycles and another vehicle, making it an unusually large and deadly incident. It has left a community in the region reeling at the scale of the loss.
Ontario Provincial Police say the crash happened in Omemee, a community within Kawartha Lakes. The presence of four motorcycles in a single collision points to a sudden and chaotic sequence of events on the road. Officers were called to deal with multiple casualties at once.
Two of the victims died where the crash took place. Police say an 18-year-old from Peterborough and a 72-year-old motorcyclist were both killed at the scene, a span of ages that captures how indiscriminate the collision was. Their deaths were confirmed as the immediate toll of the crash.
A third death followed later. A 65-year-old rider, who survived the initial impact, subsequently died in hospital, raising the number of people killed to three. The progression underlined how severe the injuries were for those caught up in the collision.
Beyond the three fatalities, others were left hurt. Two more people were injured in the crash, though police have not given details on the extent of their conditions. The combination of three deaths and two injuries makes it one of the more devastating road incidents the area has seen.
The cause of the collision remains an open question. Investigators have not yet said what led to the crash involving the four motorcycles and the other vehicle. The work to piece together exactly what happened on the road in Omemee is ongoing.