Bad one this morning. Driver and passenger both deceased. The Civic didn't make the exit ramp and went right into the boonies. Must have had a good head of steam on though as the light post it hit (one of the really big ones) was about 150m beyond where the car went off road. The car was broke in two with either half 5-6 m apart on either side of the post.

I have pretty good idea what happened. The right lane is actually the on and off ramps of Burloak and Bronte Roads respectivally. This happened at about 6:00 and its dark and the driver was probably using the lane for overtaking and ran out of road. Poor driving and lousy highway design to have disappearing lanes without all kinds of warnings.

 

The construction along this part of the QEW (particularly eastbound from Brant to Royal Windsor) is especially bad and confusing. In part with the addition of the HOV lanes where there weren't any before, to shared on/off ramp merge lanes, to poor lane indication markings, to lanes that disappear and suddenlt become off ramps with no warning (as mentioned by Jim).

I find that I am constantly warning my wife of these little traps to be wary of her lane, her surroundings, but mostly of the others around her that may have to make sudden moves to stay on the highway.

For all that may read this and have to drive along this stretch of the QEW...please pay extra caution and attention. I have witnessed far too much bad driving in the last 2 weeks, all of which that was totally unnecessary had some defensive driving and awareness been used.

Merry Christmas

 

Had to be a combo of speed and black ice and throw in lack of barriers on the ramp and unprotected cement poles and you have some real problems. I'm willing to bet you'll find the Civic had no ice radials on it - just the standard OEM partly worn crap or even worse, some low profile summer compound.



I notice that there are no barriers on the Walkers Line on ramp to QEW west and your coming down a hill around a bend. It wouldn't take much for someone going a bit too fast to understeer off and down over the bank then there is nothing to stop them from crossing across three live lanes and the new HOV lane at a 90 degree angle... And MTO can't picture this happening in winter? I sware to God they must hire people without imaginations.

Same with lack of snow fencing on Provinical highways. And they wonder why we have all these snow drift problems trapping people for 24 hours... I recall that massive car crash on the 400 north about 20-25 years back where people died after a 50+ pile up and the inquest results came out that a lack of snow fencing was partly to blame (and dumb *** speeding in bad conditions). MTO put up snow fencing there after but year after year they decided more and more sections of highway 'don't need it' until now here we are in 2010 and you'll find almost no snow fencing on Provinical highways. All it will take is to have that one bad winter (Hello Hwy 402 past London!) and we'll replicate that 400 multi car wreak.

Stupid as it may seem, we have to spend the money to protect these dumb asses against themselves as these are the people having wreaks who involve the other 98% minding their own business driving correctly and using snow tires. 9 times out of 10 these Darwin award winners end up ok while wiping out a mother of four and her kids in a mini van.

 

rough picture .. but is the pole between the semi colon of the 2 "45" numbers where he hit ? if so that is a long way from the exit ..

 

Clive, thats correct. I drove by there at 10:00 and Police were doing accident reconstruction. The little flags showed the car going straight ahead off the lane. It is quite a distance though.

 

oh i get it now .. i was deceived by following the snow line that he came from the highway .. but your saying he came off the exit as he probably couldn't scrub off enough speed to negotiate the bend .. and we all know once your on grass even in perfect conditons you aren't scubbing off anything.

Very Sad indeed ...

 

Sad news, but very good comments, Jim.

 

Wow. How could you tell it was a civic? I was there approx 10am. It was kinda hard to tell what kind of car it was! Sad indeed.

 

Yeah i saw it on the news last night ... wow what a mess..

 

My fiancee drives an '09 Civic, and if this person was driving on the OEM 'all season' rubber, the carnage was inevitable Proper winter tires are a must.

 

Well i am not here to debate and do believe in wnter tires as I have them on all my cars .. but looking at the damage , where that car came off and the speed it must have been going .. to do that damage i don't think winters would have made much difference in this case .. and that is assuming they didn't have them ... deep snow yeah .. black ice and speed ? negligable difference .

 

Agreed.

My remark was more to the fact the OEM tires on the Civic are not particularly good.