HEARST — Ontario Provincial Police are investigating an incident that saw two transport trucks come close to what would almost certainly have been a disastrous head-on collision.
The incident was posted Tuesday on the Facebook group Skilled Truckers Canada.
According to the post, it happened on Highway 11 near Hearst, and was captured on a dash-cam mounted in one of the tractor-trailers.
The video shows an oncoming transport in the wrong lane, forcing the driver of the other tractor-trailer to veer off the road and into the ditch.
An OPP spokesperson said Wednesday that "there is an open investigation into this" by officers from the Hearst detachment.
The number of collisions and near-collisions on Northern Ontario highways that are being publicized on social media has caught the attention of politicians at Queen's Park.
On Wednesday in the legislature, Mushkegowuk–James Bay NDP MPP Guy Bourgouin raised the issue with Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria.
He said it's hard to grasp the meaning of the minister's recent statement that Ontario has among the safest highways in North America "when a Facebook group called Highway 11/17 Kills People exists."
Bourgouin invited the minister to visit that page.
"Hundreds of daily photos of drifted trucks and accidents, and videos of drivers passing on solid double lines, both commercial and personal vehicles," he said.
The New Democrat MPP is lobbying for his own private member's bill that would amend the Highway Traffic Act to include an outright ban on passing on a double yellow line.
Sarkaria reiterated that Ontario has safer roads than other jurisdictions and said the government will continue to work with law enforcement and road-safety advocates to ensure highways stay safe.
When Bourgouin asked if he would commit to passing the new bill, the minister replied that "It's already illegal in Ontario for any driver to dangerously pass any vehicle. Ontario's laws already provide the ability for police to enforce offences where appropriate when someone is driving dangerously."
