Advertisement 1

Windsor man dies, Highway 401 closed after deadly tractor-trailer collision

Chatham-Kent OPP said around 7:30 a.m. Friday that the highway would be closed between County Road 42 and Queens Line until about 4 p.m.

Article content

Fallon Hewitt, Ellwood Shreve and Trevor Wilhelm
Postmedia News
TILBURY — A Windsor man is dead following another median crossover crash, another death on a notorious stretch of Southwestern Ontario highway called Carnage Alley.
Article content
For the sixth time within a year, grief and Highway 401 chaos cascaded from the wreckage — in this case, two tractor-trailers — of a collision between a vehicle going one way on Canada’s busiest highway crashing into another going the other way.
Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content
Drivers of both rigs were taken with life-threatening injuries to hospital, where one — whom police identified as Alaa Issa, 44, of Windsor, from the westbound rig — died of his injuries.
The other driver, not identified, was listed in critical condition in a London hospital, the OPP said.
It was the first fatal median-crossover collision of the year in the London-to-Tilbury zone where cross-over crashes and deaths have become common.
In the fallout, pressure is mounting on Ontario’s incoming Progressive Conservative government — days from being sworn into office — to fix the 120-km stretch of the 401 west of London to Tilbury, where activists want concrete median safety barriers installed.
Traffic was snarled for most of the day following Friday’s early-morning crash near Tilbury, with all lanes of the 401 closed, diverting thousands of vehicles, mainly transport trucks, off the nation’s busiest super-highway and creating gridlock in the Chatham-Kent community.
Area MPP Rick Nicholls said he plans to press the new provincial transportation minister to make median concrete barriers a priority after the cabinet is sworn in next week.
Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content
“I will bring forth a recommendation that we don’t install cable barriers (and) that we start immediately on filling in the median and installing concrete barriers,” said Nicholls, returned in the June 7 election as the PC MPP for Chatham-Kent-Leamington.
The deadly rush-hour collision happened about 6:55 a.m.
“You can see the devastation behind us,” Chatham-Kent OPP Const. Jay Denorer said as officers investigated and crews combed through a sprawling debris field. “The two vehicles collided. Significant damage.”
Denorer said a westbound tractor-trailer went out of control, crossed the centre median and collided with an eastbound rig.
The cabs of both trucks were crumpled and the engine compartments ripped off. The trailers were torn apart. One trailer bore the logo of a Kerwood, Ont., trucking company, RCT.
Alysson Storey of Chatham, leading the Build the Barrier campaign to get the barriers, said she wants an early meeting with premier-designate Doug Ford and his new minister “to make sure they are aware of the seriousness of this situation down here, because we cannot afford to lose anymore lives.”
Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content
Kathleen Reed, another member of Build the Barrier, said her heart was broken by Friday’s crash.
Reed lost her partner, trucker Gary Lent, in a 2017 crossover crash west of London involving two trucks.
“Today was completely devastating. It just brought me back to last year . . . It’s got to stop,” she said.
Ontario’s departing Liberal government, under pressure, had agreed to move toward installing the concrete barriers, an upgrade from high-tension wire cables planned instead, but noted that would take time.
Nicholls has said the PCs are committed to installing the barriers, but that it will come down to timing while whipping the province’s financial books into shape.
The 120-km stretch of highway runs through three Tory ridings.
Concrete 401 barriers were installed east of London years ago after frequent, often deadly median crossover crashes. But west of London, the highway has no such median barriers.
Last fall, barrier advocates took their campaign to Queen’s Park. Months later, the Liberal government appeared to blink, saying barriers would come — but not right away.
Chatham-Kent Mayor Randy Hope expressed frustration at the fallout of such crashes in Chatham-Kent, including wear and tear on its roads from traffic diverted off the highway, and said he wants provincial funding to help.
“It puts a lot of pressure on us,” he said.
— With files by Tom ­Morrison and Dale ­Carruthers, Postmedia News

The wreckage of a collision between two tractor-trailers is shown on Friday, June 22, 2018 on Highway 401 near Tilbury. One driver was killed and the other is in serious condition. The accident occurred just before 7 a.m. and shut down all lanes of the highway for several hours.
The wreckage of a collision between two tractor-trailers is shown on Friday, June 22, 2018 on Highway 401 near Tilbury. One driver was killed and the other is in serious condition. The accident occurred just before 7 a.m. and shut down all lanes of the highway for several hours. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star
An OPP officer examines the wreckage of a collision between two tractor-trailers Friday, June 22, 2018, on Highway 401 near Tilbury.
An OPP officer examines the wreckage of a collision between two tractor-trailers Friday, June 22, 2018, on Highway 401 near Tilbury. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star
Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

This Week in Flyers