Chatham-Kent OPP officials allege: On December 11, 2018, around 7:15 a.m. Chatham-Kent Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) responded to a responded to a motor vehicle collision on Highway 401 near Merlin Road.
Investigation revealed, an eastbound tractor trailer had crossed through the centre median, drove through the cable barrier and collided head on into two westbound tractor trailers. All three drivers were transported to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Chatham-Kent OPP officials say with the highway closed there is now a long line of vehicles stopping and being forced to wait while the lanes are being cleared.
What do you do now?
Police officials say emergency crews will generally do everything they can to at least get one lane or shoulder passable to traffic immediately, but sometimes this is just not possible.
“Sometimes, if it is determined that the highway will be closed for an extended period of time, the highway will be closed at or prior to the previous exit and traffic will be redirected at that point,” Chatham-Kent OPP officials said in a media release.
“Police will then, starting at the rear of the jam, direct people to reverse one at a time, or turn around completely and drive the wrong way, on the now closed highway, to get back to the previous exit. If they think they can clear it within an hour or so, traffic will be made to wait, as it is more efficient and time effective to just clear the lanes, than spend manpower and effort to clear the traffic.”
OPP officials added: “Occasionally police/emergency crews will direct traffic back to the last ‘on-ramp’, or to cross at an ‘authorized use only’ crossover, to clear the jam. OPP are urging drivers not to move until they have been directed by police. You could get stuck in the center median or cause a collision by using the “authorized use only’ crossover. This will result in police having to divert resources from the initial collision scene and shutting the highway down longer to clean up two separate scenes.”
During this collision, OPP issued a careless driving charge to a motorist who drove through the center median, police officials allege.
