Five Fatalities In Huntsville Collision But No Information Provided

by | Nov 27, 2023 | News

Thirty-six hours have passed since a multi-fatal collision reportedly occurred on Hwy 60 near Huntsville, Ontario. Yet not even the most minimal information has been released to the public as to what kind of collision occurred and why five persons perished. The fact that no persons were noted to survive illustrates the unusual circumstances of the incident. Even the most severe crashes result in survival of at least one or two of any five occupants. It is also reported that fatalities occurred in both vehicles, also an unusual result. No photos have been made available of the collision site nor of the two involved vehicles.

The site of the collision was reported to be near Hidden Valley Road which is about 6 kilometres east of Huntsville, Ontario. The views below are taken from Google Maps and provide some general indication of the site characteristics.

This general view of the area shows the intersection of Hwy 60 and Hidden Valley Road in the centre. Huntsville would be located to the bottom left while Algonquin Park would be located toward the upper right. Hwy 60 is the only major roadway that takes road users across the east-west from Huntsville, along the south edge of Algonquin Park and toward the Ottawa River valley.
This image shows a closer view of the intersection of Hwy 60 and Hidden Valley Road. Although news media reported that the collision occurred near Hidden Valley Road such a description is often imprecise and, based on past experience, the actual collision site could be anywhere within several kilometres of the intersection. Note that the roadsides are generally surrounded by wooded grounds and there are only a few houses and driveways.
This Google Maps Streetview is looking east on Hwy 60 toward the intersection with Hidden Valley Road. Again, while news media have reported that the collision occurred near here such a description is often imprecise.

Without any information about the precise location of the collision site it is not possible to consider what factors might have been involved in the crash.

In many instances two-vehicle, fatal collisions occurring on relatively busy, two-lane highways involve a vehicle going out of control, often when rounding a curve. In such an instance, in the past, the out-of-control vehicle comes to be sliding sideways into the front end of the opposing vehicle. Now-a-days, with the existence of electronic stability control (ESC), out-of-control vehicles do not rotate sideways but very often carry on facing in a generally forward direction. This can lead to impacts where the force is closer to the centre-of-gravity of both vehicles and the collision severity (change-in-velocity) can be greater. Thus although ESC may be helpful in the majority of instances, sometimes it is not. The discussion here cannot be used to say anything about the present collision however because fatal collisions can occur in so many different ways and there is no information what-so-ever about how and why the current collision occurred.

It should not be acceptable however, that collisions like these should be left unexplained where even basic information is not provided.