Up to 40 tractor-trailers piled up as snow and ice cover Hwy. 401 near Trenton
Posted March 18, 2015 1:28 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An emergency response plan is now in place after a massive tractor-trailer pileup on Highway 401 near Trenton on Wednesday morning.
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said the crashes involve between 30 to 40 tractor-trailers, as well as other vehicles.
The OPP said all eastbound lanes of the 401 are closed along a 30-kilometre stretch of the highway from Brighton to west of Belleville. All but one westbound lane was closed as well, but the lanes have since reopened.
Officials with the Ministry of Environment are on scene for a leak of some kind. Reports from the scene indicate one of the tractor-trailers was carrying more than 40,000 litres of oil.
Police said the crashes, which were weather-related, occurred in the eastbound lanes around midnight.
Four people were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
While it is not clear what the weather conditions were like at the time, whiteout conditions were reported just after midnight on Wednesday.
Highway 2 is being used as an alternate through the area.
