How Aware Are OPP Of Creating Dangerous Traffic Conditions?

by | Aug 19, 2025 | News

This dashcam view was taken at approximately 1640 hours on westbound Highway 403 on approach to Highway 401 approaching Woodstock, Ontario, It shows an Ontario Provincial Police SUV stopped in the passing lane of the expressway with its emergency lights activated. Further ahead a vehicle had rolled over in the highway median.

There are times when police must act swiftly to react to situations where the public, or other emergency personnel, including themselves, may be in grave danger. At times this puts a police officer in harm’s way until proper reinforcements and equipment can arrive. Regrettably that can be a circumstance of policing. However each circumstance needs deep evaluation as some decisions can needlessly create dangers that need not occur. An example of this occurred on Monday, August 18, 2025 on westbound Highway 403 on approach to Highway 401 on the outskirts of Woodstock, Ontario,

A single vehicle rollover occurred causing a passenger car to come to rest in the median of Highway 403. Upon approaching the site from a westbound position it was observed that an OPP police SUV had come to a stop in the westbound passing lane, as shown in the dashcam photo above. Although the overhead emergency lights from the police vehicle could be seen from a distance, due to the curve in the highway, it was not possible to obtain a clear understanding of where the police vehicle was located, with respect to the travel lanes, until a driver was relatively close to the police vehicle. As traffic slowed that unusual position became evident and westbound vehicles successfully passed the stopped police vehicle.

But such successful scenarios do not always unfold as expected. The traffic volume at the time that the above photo was taken was relatively light and, given the Sunday afternoon, the volume of heavy trucks was much less than on a weekday. However that traffic volume, and its composition is important. If traffic volume was higher and if more heavy trucks were present the ability of approaching drivers to see the stopped police vehicle would be hampered. Heavy trucks have the tendency to block the view of other drivers of highway conditions that lie ahead. So much so that, given the uncommon conditions of several heavy trucks in the vicinity, visibility ahead could be greatly obscured. Also heavy trucks cannot change lanes on a dime, especially when other smaller vehicles are in the vicinity and changing lanes cannot be done immediately.

Two other dash-cam photos are shown below which demonstrate what existed in the westbound lanes on approach to the collision-involved vehicle. As can be seen, there is nothing in the westbound passing lane that would create an immediate danger to westbound drivers. And there are no longer any emergency personnel in the median. So this collision had to have happened some time earlier. So why was the police vehicle still stopped in the westbound passing lane? Was it not possible to call the Ministry of Transportation to bring a blocker truck to block the westbound passing lane instead of using a police vehicle?

This view shows a second police vehicle stopped in the westbound lane of Highway 403 and the small image of the collision-involved vehicle can be seen in the distant background.
This view shows the conditions just beyond the stopped police vehicles and the collision-involved passenger vehicle can be seen in the median. A posted maximum speed sign in the median shows that the speed limit is reduced to 100 km/h ahead meaning that the speed limit within the zone of the collision site is 110 km/h. Traffic often travels at much higher speeds than the speed limit is such scenarios.

What becomes evident in the photo above, and in the photo below, is that the eastbound passing lane on the other side of the highway has been closed by pylons and there is a blocker truck positioned in that lane along with some Ministry of Transportation vehicles. These are the types of resources that should have been applied in the westbound lanes if the passing lane was to be safely closed. But why did this not occur? Was a second blocker truck not available?

Decades earlier another incident took place in the westbound lanes of Highway 401 near the Putnam interchange which is less than 30 kilometres west from the present site. In that incident a collision-involved vehicle had come to rest in the grass median (this was before a concrete median barrier had been put in place). In darkness a police officer attempted to divert traffic out of the westbound passing lane by using the flash light that he was equipped with. This could have been the best equipment that the officer had on hand but it was insufficient and a second collision occurred. At that time the deficiency could have been observed and steps could have been put in place to ensure that more traffic-diverting equipment was available. But that did not happen for many years until blocker-trucks eventually began to be used. However, how often are such trucks available in current times? If a blocker-truck was not available at the currently-mentioned site, why not?