Charges Laid After Separate Southern Ontario Highway Crashes Send Multiple People to Hospital

Overview

• Essex County OPP say a wrong-way vehicle hit an OPP cruiser on Highway 3 near County Road 8 around 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 1, sending an officer to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
• A 42-year-old Windsor resident was arrested in that case and charged with impaired driving (alcohol and drugs), impaired with 80-plus blood alcohol concentration, dangerous operation causing bodily harm, and failure to stop after an accident.
• Police imposed a 90-day administrative driver’s licence suspension and a seven-day vehicle impoundment on the Windsor suspect, who is due in Ontario Court of Justice in downtown Windsor on Jan. 20.
• In a separate crash at about 6:23 p.m. on Jan. 1, an SUV lost control and struck a transport truck on eastbound Highway 401 west of Dorchester Road, sending three occupants to hospital, including one initially listed as critical whose condition improved to serious.
• A 51-year-old Illinois driver was charged with careless driving in the Highway 401 incident, and hours later a single-vehicle rollover just after 6 a.m. on Jan. 2 on northbound Highway 416 near Hunt Club Road sent a 30-year-old man to hospital with serious injuries as lanes were restricted for investigation.