A sunny, end-of-season trip out on the ice went terribly wrong this weekend for a group of five people near Beaverton.
The truck they were driving on Lake Simcoe flipped, killing one woman and injuring four men.
It happened in a split second, and it's an accident police say could easily happen again as ice conditions change.
“The vehicle was airborne for 200 to 300 feet and when it landed it rolled a couple of times,” says Brock Fire Chief Rick Harrison.
Pictures from the scene show the truck lying on its side on Lake Simcoe.
A 32 year-old woman from Ukraine was killed. Four men from the Toronto area were injured. Police don’t think any of them were wearing their seatbelts.
Tonight, debris from the crash is still everywhere on the ice.
Response teams say the truck was heading eastbound when it hit a pressure crack near Thorah Island on Lake Simcoe. The pressure crack acted like a ramp and the truck then went airborne and rolled multiple times before coming to a stop. Three of the people were ejected from the truck.
“The truck was travelling across the ice at what we believe is a fairly high rate of speed when it hit the pressure crack,” says Brock District Fire Chief Chris Gillespie.
The Highway Traffic Act doesn’t apply out on the ice; there is no speed limit.
The crash happened around 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon, March 17. Durham Region Police were joined by police from York Region and fire departments from Ramara and Beaverton. Ornge was also called in.
Because the crash happened five kilometers from shore, getting to the scene took time.
Today we spotted several people back out on the ice in their vehicles. This is a busy spot for people driving out on the ice, but some who were thinking of going out today changed their mind at the last minute.
While it isn’t illegal to take your vehicle out on the ice, fire chiefs are reminding people the conditions are changing and often do so with little or no warning.
