Cpl. Bill Litowski of London OPP (in suit) checks a gravel truck involved in a fatal collision on Hwy 401 near the Victoria Sideroad interchange Thursday. Two occupants of the crushed car were killed and a third injured.
Two California residents were killed when a gravel truck crushed their car on Highway 401 and a London woman died in a head-on collision Thursday afternoon in accidents just outside the city limits.
The victims:
• Sabrina Park, 34, of 181 Blackfriars Dr., London
• Joseph Poirier, 47, and wife, Sara, 56, of Los Angeles.
“We could have been under that,” UWO student Elizabeth Nigel thinks, sitting on the car her father “just turned into the ditch.” Alongside is another car that escaped.
Firemen had to cut into the flattened car and pry the roof away from the lower half of the vehicle.
One person, Nicolena D’Ascenzo, survived in the crushed car. She was riding in the back seat.
Mrs. Park was killed when her westbound station wagon was demolished at about 4 p.m. on Gainsborough Road about one-quarter mile outside the city limits. The driver of the other car, Frank Chisholm, 22 of 4511 Allsbrook Rd., London, suffered minor facial cuts and bruises.
A passenger in the Poirier car, Nicolena D’Ascenzo, 54, of Detroit, survived the crash. She is in satisfactory condition in Victoria Hospital, London.
The truck driver, James Biro, 29 of Waterford, suffered scrapes and bruises and was released from hospital after treatment.
Ontario Provincial Police Cpl. Bill Litowski said the westbound truck had a blowout, went out of control and into the eastbound lanes where the collision occurred. Two other eastbound vehicles were forced into a ditch but their occupants were not injured.
The accident blocked eastbound lanes from 2:20 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. between Highways 126 and 74. Traffic was rerouted using the Victoria Sideroad, which is still under construction. The interchange is near the accident.
The truck, owned by J. B. Haulage of Waterford, was carrying a full load of gravel which spilled on to the highway.
Ray Pettit of Oshawa, driving a tractor trailer following the gravel truck, said he could see the driver desperately “fighting the wheel” as it crossed the westbound lanes.
Mrs. Olaf Nigel of Toronto said her husband was driving their car when they saw the transport swerve. “It splashed gravel all over the windshield. We could not see . . . my husband just turned into the ditch.”
Looking back at the wreckage, she said, “We could have been under that.”
After coroner Dr. Bev Robinson of London arrived, a crane lifted the truck off the crushed car. A wrecker peeled off the roof so the bodies could be removed.
Photos by Sam McLeod of The Free Press
