Highway 407 Fuel Tanker Fire & Double Fatal – Research To Find Similar Causes

The following photos depict a single vehicle’s motion that was documented during our study of possible causes of collisions on major expressways such as Highways 401 or 407. Signage was present for over 1 kilometre warning this driver that the right lane was terminating. Yet, as we see in this sequence, the vehicle wanders fully into the ending lane and then returns to its original position.

We do not know what caused the tanker truck to veer across the lanes of Highway 407 on October 31, 2018. The truck reportedly rolled over the concrete median barrier and was eventually consumed by the intense fire. What we can do is conduct close examinations of vehicle motions on these roads and try to find possible causes. Gorski Consulting uses multiple video cameras, set-up within a perimeter of about half of a kilometre, to study what kind of problems occur on Highway 401. Events such as the one shown here happen on a regular basis and it is important to understand their frequency. From there we might come to also understand why they occur. It is only through the collection of this objective data that we can reach some useful conclusions.