Charges laid in Highway 400 crash that killed 4

A truck driver faces multiple charges in connection with a fiery 12-vehicle Highway 400 crash that killed four people in June, including a little girl and two women from the same family.

Ontario Provincial Police said Thursday that Sarbjit Singh Matharu, 35, of Winnipeg, has been charged with four counts of criminal negligence causing death and one count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

The June 24 crash on southbound Highway 400 near Finch Avenue killed three members of the Vokshi family who were on their way home after a day at Canada's Wonderland.

Five-year-old Isabela Kuci, her mother 35-year-old Valbona Vokshi, and her grandmother, 55-year-old Xhemile Vokshi, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Blerta Vokshi, aunt, sister and daughter to the crash victims was in another vehicle involved in the crash with two-year-old Aron Sufa. Both of them survived.

A fourth woman, 27-year-old Maria Lipska, with no relation to the other victims, was also killed in the crash.

More charges possible
The collision happened when a car rear-ended a transport truck in the southbound lanes of the highway. Of the 12 vehicles involved, three were commercial transport trucks. The crash fuelled a fire that destroyed one of the truck's trailers and two other vehicles.

OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told CBC News the charges were months in the making due to due the complexity of the investigation.

"There's been a lot of work, there was so many vehicles involved, so many witnesses to follow up on," he said.

He added that the investigation into the crash isn't complete, and more charges are possible.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/highway-400-crash-1.3763667

 

There were multiple vehicles involved. It started with a car rear ending a truck but that driver of that truck isn't the one charged. It's the idiot who ran into the stopped traffic who is facing charges.

 

It's a common choke point at the best of times, with construction it's even worse right now. I doubt the lead truck was even stopped when the first rear ending occurred, likely moving just very slow.

Had the car not rear ended a truck to start it all it's quite likely the dude who was charged would have run into the slowed/stopped traffic anyway though the end result may not have been as drastic.

He obviously wasn't paying attention. As mentioned it's a place where traffic always slows right down. Hwy 400 is a 100 km/h road that comes to an end at Hwy 401. The ramp to 401 W is a 50 km/h ramp. So we have a fast road with a high volume of traffic that turns into a choke point due to the reduce speed required for the ramps. Add in the fact that construction has the westbound ramp down to a single lane instead of two and there is a delay in all but the lightest of traffic conditions. Anyone who drives there on any type of regular basis knows this. Anyone who doesn't couldn't miss the sea of brake lights that are visible as you approach due to the way the road slopes down approaching that point.

The driver that was charged had to have been distracted in some way for this to have happened the way it did.

 

It's bad enough trying to catch the 410 that way, Dixie, no thanks.

409 to 427 south to 401 west puts you in the right lane of the collectors, it's only an extra mile of two and is even quicker when traffic is retarded.