Initial reports are motorcycle collided with rear end of tractor-trailer near St. Catharines
A motorcycle crash closed the Fort Erie bound lanes of the QEW for hours Tuesday morning causing a traffic snarl in the north end of St. Catharines.
The rider, a 54-year-old man from the Oakville area, was airlifted to an out-of-town hospital after sustaining “serious” injuries, said Const. Rob Knight of Niagara’s OPP detachment.
“The initial reports we have from the witnesses is that the motorcycle rear-ended the tractor-trailer,” Knight said.
The OPP received the call at about 5:45 a.m. and closed the Fort Erie-bound lanes of the QEW at Martindale Road for hours. That sent vehicles onto Highway 406 and eventually city streets as drivers tried to find their way back onto the QEW ahead of the crash scene.
“We diverted the traffic at Highway 406, but due to the numerous construction projects in the area, the traffic ended up quite backed up.
At the time the police told drivers to avoid the area if possible, especially if they were facing a time crunch on the way to work.
“The local folks also know there is construction on the regional roads in that area and ramp closures,” Knight said before calling the detours “a real headache for the morning commuters.”
The OPP’s Traffic Incident Management Efficiency (TIME) team processed the crash scene. The officers are technical experts that reconstruct the events leading up to a collision.
“These are potentially life-altering injuries when someone is airlifted to an out-of-town hospital,” Knight said. “The individual is going through numerous assessment and will likely be headed to surgery.
“There is always the possibility, with these kinds of injuries, that it might turn into a fatality. We need to find out what happened.”
Source: St. Catharines Standard