Dashcam video shows terrifying near-miss on two-lane northern Ontario highway
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
A commercial truck driver captured dashcam video footage of several transports swerving into oncoming traffic on Highway 11 near Matheson.
It happened after a trio of vehicles stopped on the shoulder of the two-lane road.
A red transport towing two enclosed trailers reportedly caught fire on the road and pulled over quickly.
Paulette Souriol said on social media she was in a white passenger vehicle behind it when it made the sudden stop.
"Wow, what a ride that was, glad I’m home, I was behind the truck," Souriol said.
"His truck caught fire at the back earlier in the day and went back on the road to put it in a safer place lol so he had no brakes or brake lights or caution lights or signal lights."
She added she thought she was dead in that moment.
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Video footage shows a blue transport pulling a flatbed trailer swerving into oncoming traffic around a white passenger vehicle with a white cube van parked on the shoulder behind it.
Then, as the truck with the video camera moves on in the shoulder to make room, a yellow transport can be seen driving into oncoming traffic before entering the ditch on the wrong side of the road, narrowly missing a head-on collision.
The video posted on social media by Skilled Truckers of Canada has more than 116,000 views in less than 24 hours.
"Wow. The driver recording managed to avoid multiple vehicles in a very short time. That part was impressive," Emily McGregor commented.
"As for everyone else following too closely at high speeds, consider yourself lucky this time. There's no reason to be that out of control considering the highway is bare and dry. People need to leave more breathing room. What if a large animal ran onto the highway? You should always be prepared. Unpredictable stuff happens way too often."
Brandi Hanlon-Hackett said the incident was not the fault of the truck driver who had to pull over.
"It has nothing to do with the guy on fire. Everyone else should have slowed down, stayed in line and had some dam patience and common sense," Hanlon-Hackett said.
"Most of these guys driving shouldn’t have licenses, let alone be running north on two-lane highways."
Phill McGinn said drivers don't seem to check their mirrors anymore.
"Most likely he only knew something was up when he started to lose air because a hose burnt threw which resulted in his sudden pull-off," McGinn said.
"Buddy in the cube van likely didn't pay attention and was slow to react. And no one behind him could see around him which resulted in pretty much everyone reacting to the reaction of the truck in front of them. And it seems only truck that had proper spacing for reaction was the last one."
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