Idiot was drunk - had the truck bed lifted....there were workers on the scaffolding scrambling for their livesThe Burlington Skyway crash yesterday has created a storm of travel questions ahead of the busy August holiday weekend.
The driver of a large truck crashed into and damaged the Skyway on Thursday, putting a cloud over Toronto-bound traffic ahead of the Civic Holiday in Ontario.
Sukhvinder Singh Rai, 34, of Brampton, Ont., was arrested at the scene and taken to the Burlington OPP detachment for breath tests. He faces one count of impaired operation of a motor vehicle and one count of blood alcohol level exceeding 80 milligrams while operating a motor vehicle.
Here's more of what you need to know about the Burlington Skyway crash and bridge closure:
What happened:
On Thursday, at 3:40 p.m. ET, a dump truck tried to travel over the bridge with its bucket raised. The bucket slammed into the bridge's overhead steel trusses and girders, causing extensive damage.
What's closed:
The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) Toronto-bound lanes are closed between Eastport Drive and North Shore Boulevard. The bridge now needs to be inspected by structural engineers, which is expected to happen Friday. The repairs, however, could take days. The closure only affects Toronto-bound traffic on the QEW. Traffic lanes heading south over the bridge and into the Niagara Region will be open, though drivers can expect it will be slow. CBC's Linda Ward reports that the OPP expects to have an update on when the bridge might reopen around suppertime.
How busy is this bridge?:
Located at the western end of Lake Ontario, the bridge is a crucial link between the Greater Toronto Area and the Niagara Peninsula, which borders upstate New York. It carries about 80,000 vehicles a day.
To make matters worse:
The August long weekend is one of the summer's busiest for highway travel. Carloads of visitors, many from the U.S., make the trip to Toronto for the Caribbean Carnival.
The bridge is the only way for ocean going ships to enter Hamilton Bay and they've closed access as well.
THE major corridor between the Niagara Region and Toronto...with Carabana on as well and thousands coming from the US.
1 million people watch the parade
tens of thousands from the US and the only high speed corridor is over that bridge.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/ ... -1.2724775
what a monumental fuckup.
Making it all worse for travellers - a CN freight derailed and hit a VIA train so 4100 existing passengers are screwed with lines to Ottawa and Montreal.
