Officials from the Ministry of Environment have been called to the scene after a transport truck slammed into a concrete barrier on Highway 401 and spilled a significant amount of diesel fuel onto the ground, police say.
The accident happened in the westbound collector lanes of the highway at around 7 a.m.
All collector lanes were initially blocked between Avenue Road and Yonge Street, however two lanes have since reopened.
“We have a transport truck up against a concrete wall. It smashed into the section that separates the express from the collectors. That resulted in a massive diesel spill and damage to that transport truck,” OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told CP24 on Saturday morning. “We have to get the vacuum trucks and the cleanup trucks here on scene and the Ministry of Environment is attending as well and will be doing some assessments as to how much contamination has gone down into the environment.”
In addition to collision approaching Avenue Road, Schmidt said that police are also at the scene of another collision involving a transport truck and several vehicles that occurred about 500 metres away from the first scene.
Paramedics say that three people sustained minor injuries in that crash and were taken to local hospitals.
Meanwhile, Schmidt said that it will likely take “some time” before the highway is fully reopened.
“It will likely be most of the morning I suspect before we have everything cleaned up,” he said.
