Canada;Cobourg...a road disaster

February 1/07


Cobourg Ontario Canada..
On my way to Cobourg, pickup truck loaded with kitchen renovation parts and related stuff..traffic near Port Hope on Ontario Highway 401 came to a sudden stop.

Apparently 20 km further east there had been a serious accident and all traffic east and west on Canada's busiest highway was totally diverted thru small towns and other highways to cope with this mess as well as can be expected.
Because of a sudden snow squall (lake effect snow created by wind blowing east, over the lake Ontartio) on an otherwise clear day a white-out situation created a horrible warlike scene within seconds on a relatively short stretch of road.
The driver of a PC cruiser-driver (car) was unable to see the road ahead and stopped suddenly on the road.
A lumber loaded truck hit this thing. More cars. A fuel truck with 30,ooo gallons of gasoline hit this scene. Then more cars more trucks...,the tanker burst, gasoline lit up more than 30 vehicles...it's a miracle that only two people were killed in this horrible inferno.

The 4-0-1 Highway was closed for more than 24 hours, in both directions. Whatever traffic there was had to be diverted.

Six trucks including the tanker truck, about 30 cars, diversion of traffic for 2 days, attention at the scene and the hospitals...countless unproductive or wasted hours, loss of life...surely this whole disaster could have been avoided.
We should by now have proper, modern warning and monitoring equipment to spot these common snow squalls. Tanker trucks should be limited maximum speed limit of 80km/hour. Trucks absolute limit of 90km/hr.
If the police and or the department of transport can not handle this problem another way must be found to control this type of problem...empower a road warden or instant fine collecting agency to control the traffic..\
Speed limits must be enforced by the OPP ( Ontario Provincial Police).
Recently I've seen these horrific traffic pile ups here and in the US.

I am totally convinced that excessive speed by trucks and cars as well is a mayor cause of these ridiculous accidents.