Emergency dispatch calls offer details on crash that killed five near London, Ont.
Police say a fifth person has died after a Friday afternoon crash northeast of London.
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THORNDALE – “We need all the help.”
Those were the words of an emergency responder on the scene of a three-vehicle crash Friday northeast of London that killed five people.
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Firefighters from Dorchester and Thorndale were the first to arrive at the intersection of Thorndale and Cobble Hills roads in Thames Centre after a reported collision involving a transport truck around 4:30 p.m., according to an emergency dispatch call reviewed by The Free Press.
Emergency crews were initially called to a collision with possible fatalities. One of the vehicles involved, a Toyota, had five occupants, a dispatcher said.
“We’ve got a transport in the middle of the field,” an emergency responder on the scene said in an early update.
An air ambulance sent to the scene was expected to arrive by 5 p.m. An update at 4:46 p.m. confirmed four people didn’t have vital signs and a fifth person potentially didn’t have vital signs, a dispatcher said.
Minutes later, three Middlesex-London Paramedic Service ambulances arrived. By then, four people had been cut from the wreckage and CPR was in progress, the dispatcher said.
The air ambulance arrived shortly before 5 p.m. and was looking for a place to land. Firefighters had cut all of the occupants from the wreckage and one person was taken to hospital, the dispatcher said.
Ontario Provincial Police arrived to secure the scene and updates soon stopped coming on the emergency dispatch call.
Middlesex OPP provided an update on the crash Saturday morning, saying a fifth person had died and providing new details about the deadly collision.
Two 17-year-old girls and a 16-year-old girl died at the scene. A 33-year-old man was taken to hospital and later died, while a 16-year-old girl flown to hospital by helicopter also died, police said.
No other information about the victims was released.
All of the deceased were occupants of the same SUV that first collided with the transport truck, causing the truck to crash into a second SUV, police said.
Investigators on Saturday were asking anyone who may have been in the area at the time of the crash, including motorists with dash-camera footage, to contact Middlesex County OPP at 1-888-310-1122.
“I just want to take this opportunity to extend my deepest and sincerest condolences to everyone who has been affected by this tragedy tonight,” OPP Sgt. Ed Sanchuk said in a video posted to social media Friday night.
“To the Good Samaritans who stopped to provide assistance, thank you. To everyone who came to this crash tonight, thank you. To family members and friends, you have our deepest and sincerest condolences and you are in our thoughts.”
The intersection at Thorndale and Cobble Hills roads remained closed for several hours but has since been reopened.
A single OPP cruiser remained on the scene of the crash Saturday morning.
Deep tire marks were visible in the westbound lane of Thorndale Road, just west of Cobble Hills Road that is controlled by stop signs. The marks suggest a vehicle was travelling west before crossing into the eastbound lane and coming to rest in a ditch.
A man who lives near the intersection, and who only identified himself as John, said he arrived home around 5 p.m. to a heavy presence of emergency vehicles and a chaotic scene.
”There were about seven cop cars, four ambulances, a helicopter and a few fire trucks,” he said. Police remained at the scene until about 4 a.m. Saturday, the man said.
Crashes happen at the intersection from time to time, he said.
”It seems probably like any intersection: People drive too fast on this road and then people just go through the stop signs.”
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