Answers sought in freak Toronto truck tragedy

TORONTO — Police still don’t know what caused steel and copper-loaded trailer to fly off an overpass, killing the driver in a passenger car below, but they don’t think there was anything mechanically wrong with the equipment.

In a bizarre but tragic incident yesterday, Harry Taylor was killed when a trailer loaded 25,000 kg of scrap metal fell somehow decoupled from the tractor and plunged 20 metres from a Hwy 427 overpass onto his car and four other vehicles on the QEW. The car was literally severed in half.

Taylor’s 26-year-old daughter was a passenger and escaped with a broken shoulder. Four others in the other vehicles were treated for non life-threatening injuries.

The investigating OPP team will check for possible securement problems with the load.

The Toronto Star reports that the scrap metal company that owned the tractor-trailer, London-based John Zubick Ltd., has also launched an internal investigation.

Manager Matt Zubick told the paper he doesn’t think the trailer was overloaded.

Taylor was executive with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

The 28-year-old truck driver was treated in hospital for bruises and a broken foot.

 


Have your say


This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.

*