I'm blaming the dog for this one ...

ONTARIO - [Sun Media] -- A young woman was injured in a dramatic mid-day crash in London's downtown that saw a car flipped onto its roof.

Firefighters were called to the scene to help free the woman around 11:30 a.m. after two cars collided at the intersection of York and Ridout streets.

A passerby helped the woman from the car when gasoline began leaking. The woman's pet dog, escaped through a window and was seen shaking as it sat by the sidewalk before a police officer put the long-haired, black dog in his cruiser.

"I was sitting at the stop light (southbound) when this car went through and clipped the other (westbound) car and it just rolled," said Paul D1Andrea, 23, a former volunteer firefighter.

"I could smell gas, so I got her out and she seemed to be okay, maybe in shock."

Paramedics loaded the woman onto a stretcher and took her to hospital. Her condition was not immediately known.

The driver of the other car, an elderly lady, stood on the sidewalk waiting to talk to police. She was not injured.

A witness who eastbound at the intersection at the time of the accident was still a little shaken by the drama 15 minutes after the crash.

"She (the injured driver) and I were going through the intersection at the same time and I saw this other car coming through and I thought, 'She's not stopping,'" said Sarah, 37, who asked that her last name not be published.

"I swerved to avoid a collision. I was shaking. I couldn't believe it. But the most important thing is it looks like she (the other driver) is okay."

Pedestrians helped direct traffic as police investigated and firefighters cleaned up spilled gasoline. A tow truck driver was brought in to get the car on its wheels and off the street. Damage to the late-model Equinox was extensive.

Driver crashes through rail crossing. Was seconds from being smoked by oncoming train

ONTARIO - London Free Press - Police say a driver near Chatham tempted fate early today when he crashed through a railway crossing gate and cleared the tracks seconds before a train passed.

Chatham OPP said the driver contacted them after near-miss shortly after 11 a.m. on Highway 40 at Park Avenue.

"The crossing gate went down which the driver failed to react to," said Const. Aaron McPhail.

"The vehicle struck the gate and drove underneath it and . . . within seconds the train passed by."

Damage to the car and rail crossing was described as minimal.

Gordon Liddle, 85, of Chatham, is charged with disobeying a crossing gate.

Transport drags car along Bluewater Bridge

ONTARIO - Sun Media - A Sarnia woman driving on the Bluewater Bridge was "visibly shaken, but uninjured" after a harrowing experience this morning when a transport truck switched lanes and pinned and dragged her car along a guard rail 30 metres above the St. Clair River.

Lambton OPP said the 44-year-old woman was driving her Ford Mustang in the far right westbound lane of the bridge shortly before 10 a.m. when a truck two lanes to her left switched lanes, causing the truck beside her to swerve and crash into the side of her car.

The woman's car was dragged for about 100 metres before the truck stopped.

Police, firefighters and paramedics raced to the scene and took several hours to free the car from the truck. The car was "extensively damaged" police said.

The investigation is continuing into the crash and police are reviewing vdieo at the border to try and identify the other truck and its driver.

As well, police said other trucks crossing the border were held up briefly as they tried to identify the truck that caused the collision.

The woman asked police not to release her name.

Former CFL great fined $1500 for impaired driving/speeding

ONTARIO -- KITCHENER -- Joe Paopao, assistant coach of the Waterloo Warriors, was fined $1,500 Friday for impaired driving.

Paopao, a former CFL great, pleaded guilty to the charge in Kitchener’s Ontario Court. He can’t drive for a year.

Paopao was driving home to Burlington from a game in Waterloo on Oct. 19 last year. It was the final game of the season and he went out for a few beers with some out-of-town coaches, his lawyer said.

Paopao's wife was out of town and he had planned to stay over in Waterloo. But he called home to check on his son, who didn’t answer the phone. Out of concern, he felt he had to go home.

He was speeding along Highway7/8 near Fischer-Hallman Road in Kitchener when he rear-ended a car, court heard. The car veered into the north ditch and Paopao ended up in the south ditch.

A passenger in the car received minor injuries and was taken to hospital Paopao had double the legal limit of alcohol in his blood.

His lawyer said he was extremely remorseful and has taken steps to ensure nothing like this happens again.

Character letters were presented on his behalf, including one from Adam Rita, the general manager of the Toronto Argonauts. Justice Gary Hearn agreed the incident was out of character for Paopao who’s had a “remarkable career history.’’

“Good people sometimes do bad things,’’ the judge said.

He said drinking and driving is not acceptable, either socially or criminally.

Gee, you think?

Manitoba trucker cleared in girlfriend's death

MANITOBA [Winnipeg Free Press] -- A man who ran over and killed his girlfriend with a semi-trailer following a heated argument has been cleared of any wrongdoing by Manitoba's highest court.

Cory McCaughan was originally found guilty of dangerous driving causing death and given a two-year conditional sentence for the July 2004 incident near Anola, about 30 kilometres east of Winnipeg.

Christine Bruinson Dourma, 38, suffered massive head trauma after hopping onto the side of the moving rig, apparently in an attempt to get McCaughan to continue talking with her.

The Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that McCaughan was wrongly convicted by a judge who erroneously found his driving to be a "marked departure from the normal standard of care." The court overturned the conviction and replaced it with an acquittal, rather than ordering a new trial.

McCaughan had told police he saw Dourma dangling from the side of the truck but kept driving until she disappeared from sight and fell under his wheels. He said he believed she had already returned to her own vehicle. Witnesses told court an enraged McCaughan left his rig and began screaming at the body of Dourma.

The victim's father, Charles Bruinson, said McCaughan called his nearby home moments later. McCaughan spoke with Dourma's 10-year-old daughter, telling her he'd just "run over your mom." Bruinson and the girl rushed to find Dourma dead on the ground.

The family had gathered that evening to celebrate Bruinson's birthday. The party turned sour when McCaughan and Dourma began arguing. McCaughan wanted Dourma to accompany him the next day while driving in his truck because he had to work. Dourma didn't want to go, choosing instead to go to the beach, according to her father. McCaughan stormed out of the home, and Dourma followed.

Queen's Bench Justice Daniel Kennedy ruled at trial last year that McCaughan had been reckless in failing to notice Dourma. He acquitted McCaughan of the more serious charge of criminal negligence causing death, saying he believed the case involved a "momentary lapse" of judgment.

Both the Crown and defence filed appeals of Kennedy's decision.

The Crown argued he should have been convicted of the more serious negligence charge and that his sentence was too lenient. The Crown sought up to four years in custody for McCaughan, citing the facts of the killing and his violent criminal past.

Driving can kill you. Traffic increases odds of heart attack: German study

People who have had a heart attack are likely to report having been in traffic shortly before their symptoms began, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's 49th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

In a German study of patients who had a heart attack, researchers found the patients to be more than three times as likely to have been in traffic within an hour of the onset of their heart attack. The researchers also observed small but statistically significant increases in the chance that a heart attack occurred within six hours after exposure to traffic.

Driving a car was the most common source of traffic exposure, but taking public transportation or riding a bicycle were other forms of exposure to traffic. Overall, time spent in any mode of transportation in traffic was associated with a 3.2 times higher risk than time spent away from this trigger. Females, elderly males, patients who were unemployed, and those with a history of angina were affected the most by traffic.

"Driving or riding in heavy traffic poses an additional risk of eliciting a heart attack in persons already at elevated risk," said Annette Peters, Ph.D., lead author of the study and head of the research unit at the Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum Muchen, Germany.

"In this study, underlying vulnerable coronary artery disease increased the risk of having a heart attack after driving in traffic," she said.

While this study wasn't structured to pinpoint the reasons that being in traffic may have increased the risk of heart attack, "one potential factor could be the exhaust and air pollution coming from other cars," Peters said. "But we can't exclude the synergy between stress and air pollution that could tip the balance."

The researchers reviewed cases of heart attack through the KORA registry in Augsburg, Southern Germany between February 1999 and December 2003. They used a standardized interview with 1,454 patients to collect data on potential triggers of heart attack, including exposure to traffic in the four days prior to heart attack symptom onset.

The patients had a known date and time of heart attack and all had survived 24 hours after the heart attack. Participants were asked what they did the day of the heart attack, where they went, the means of transportation and time spent in traffic. The average age of the participants was 60 years and about 25 percent were women.

Previous studies by the researchers showed that those participating in strenuous activity such as playing soccer or squash or performing heavy work such as painting overhead or snow shoveling had five to six times the risk of heart attack in the subsequent hours after the activity.

This study showed that about 8 percent of the heart attacks in the group were attributable to traffic, Peters said. "It's just one of the factors, but it's not a negligible number.

"We were initially surprised to observe such a strong connection between traffic and heart attacks, which we first published in 2004 based on a case series of 691 patients. It is reassuring that we were able to reconfirm this association in an extended case series. Now it's important to find out what is behind this, whether it is air pollution or stress or both," said peters.

The researchers also said they were surprised that women appeared to be in the higher-risk group. "Their risk is more than five times higher," she said. "We're not sure what the physiological mechanism is behind this; however, it might also be due to the smaller number of women as we only interviewed 325 women in five years. A larger sample of women might have provided enough statistical power to detect a more accurate assessment of risk."

The researchers are doing further studies to explain the reasons that exposure to traffic was associated with a higher risk of heart attack. They're conducting a study on 120 healthy volunteers as part of the University of Rochester Particle Center, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The volunteers are fitted with Holter monitors providing electrocardiograms, and are monitored for exposure to air pollution and noise. After they are outfitted, they go to work or home or run errands and then return five hours later. The researchers are extending the study to those with diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance.

"Measures to improve air quality within metropolitan areas and reduction of emissions from vehicles are likely to reduce risk for heart attacks," Peters said.

Alaska couple among four killed in Hwy. 1 crash - Truck drivers from Surrey, Edmonton also died

By Robert Freeman - Chilliwack Progress
Published: March 13, 2009 12:00 PM
Updated: March 14, 2009 4:18 PM

A wire cable barrier that might have prevented the horrific crash that killed four people Thursday is about a week away from completion.

But a highways ministry official said there's "no guarantee" the barrier would have prevented a tractor-trailer unit from crossing the median and crashing into on-coming traffic.

But even a slight chance of saving lives is raising questions about why the barrier announced by the highways ministry last November has not been completed.

"I don't think there's ever a guarantee," agreed Chilliwack resident Tara Gillis, but that's going to be little comfort to the families of the four victims knowing the crash might have been prevented.

"I knew right away where the accident was because my girlfriend and her baby were in the same kind of accident there," Gillis told The Progress. "It's that damn guard rail - they haven't put it in."

Barry Eastman, the highways ministry's district manager, said work on the $632,558 barrier from Prest Road to Annis Road will be completed by March 21.

"I don't have any doubt it will be completed, or possibly completed, by March 21," he said.

But it's hard to say whether the barrier would have prevented the westbound tractor-trailer unit in Thursday's crash from crossing the median and colliding head-on with a small car and another semi-truck behind it.

"It all depends on the speed and the angle of impact," Eastman said. "There's so many factors you have to look at."

RCMP collision analysts are still investigating the cause of the accident, which killed a husband and wife from Anchorage, Alaska, a 42-year-old truck driver from Surrey and a 47-year-old truck driver from Edmonton, Alberta.

Eastman said the barriers are designed to deflect "glancing blows" that are typical when drivers fall asleep at the wheel, not direct hits above 25-degree angles.

He said work on the 5.2-km barrier was not started sooner because the ministry did not want to close Hwy 1 during the winter months, which could have caused more accidents.

Meanwhile, Chris Gadsden, a local resident who lobbied hard for the first wire cable barrier installed between Young Road and Prest Road is calling for another extension all the way to Lickman Road - and at all "danger points" in the B.C. highway system.

The first 3-km barrier cost $364,000, and has already absorbed more than 20 collisions. It was the first use of the wire-cable system in B.C.

Updated: March 13, 2009 12:00 PM
A couple from Anchorage, Alaska, were among the four people killed in a fiery multi-vehicle crash on the Trans-Canada Highway in Chilliwack Thursday [12 MAR 09].

Ann Torpy (pictured), an elementary school teacher, and her husband Michael were travelling in the area when a westbound semi-trailer crossed the median line near Annis Road and hit their car head-on.

A second semi behind the Torpys’ car couldn’t stop in time and also crashed into their car and the other truck.

The couple and both truck drivers died at the scene.

One truck driver has been identified as a 42-year-old Surrey man and the other a 47-year-old man from Edmonton, according to Upper Fraser Valley RCMP.

While RCMP have not released any names, friends and family have already been contacted.

Torpy’s colleagues in Anchorage were devastated to hear the news and had started Friday to contact grief counsellors in prepartion for school resuming Monday.

“She was wonderful, wonderful — a beloved teacher and staff member,” said Rhonda Gardner, assistant superintendent with the Anchorage School District.

Torpy was a teacher at Denali Montessori School for 11 years. She was considered a “supportive and positive staff member.”

Students and teachers in the U.S. are currently on spring break and it’s possible Torpy and her husband took the opportunity to vacation in B.C.

The couple, both 61, are parents to five adult children, said Gardner.

Const. Lea-Anne Dunlop said investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fatal crash.

She would not speculate on whether mechanical problems was a contributing factor.

“In a collision like this where there’s no indication of what caused it, it’s going to take some time,” said Dunlop. “Any number of things are a possibility and we’re not prepared to speculate.”

The B.C. Coroner’s Service is also investigating the cause of death.

Anyone that witnessed the collision and has not yet spoken to police is asked to call RCMP Fraser Valley Traffic Services at 604-702-4039.






All photos from CTV News

BRITISH COLUMBIA - 12 MAR 09 - Four people are dead after a fiery multi-vehicle crash on Highway One in Chilliwack.

For reasons not yet known, police investigation has revealed a westbound tractor-trailer crossed the center line near Annis Road around 2 p.m. this afternoon and collided head-on with a small car in the westbound lanes with two people inside, Chilliwack RCMP Const. Lea-Anne Dunlop told The Province newspaper.

“There was a second semi involved that was travelling behind that small car,” she said.

“It tried to stop, was unable to and collided with the vehicles.

“A fire ignited at the scene.”

Robert MacMullan witnessed the carnage after he heard a horrible noise from his office near Highway One and Annis Road.

"I heard a large crash and I immediately looked out on the highway and saw a large puff of smoke,'' he said in an interview with CTV News.

"The smoke was very black, very heavy, very thick. Lots of flames, so I immediately jumped in my truck and ran down to see what I could do."

But there was little he could do.

Both trailers were completely engulfed and gone. The small car was completely demolished.

Both people in the car and both truck drivers were killed instantly at the scene, said Dunlop.

“We don’t have a probable cause as to why that semi crossed the median,” said Dunlop.

“It’s a clear, sunny day out here. We don’t know what factors are playing into this and it will probably take some time to piece that all together.”

No names have been released.