A man aged 53 lost his life following an incident on the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) on Tuesday. The tragic event occurred around 11:45 a.m. when a wheel detached from a pickup truck in the Fort Erie-bound lanes near Niagara Street in St. Catharines, Ont. The loose wheel crossed into the opposite Toronto-bound lane, hitting two vehicles.
The collision led to the closure of both sides of the highway for investigation throughout the afternoon. By 6 p.m., the Fort Erie bound lanes had reopened, with the Toronto bound lanes expected to follow suit by 6:30 p.m. The victim, a male driver from the United States, was pronounced dead at the scene, while his 52-year-old male passenger sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a nearby hospital.
Following the impact with the vehicles, the wheel bounced over the highway barrier and into the city of St. Catharines. Fortunately, no injuries were reported for the driver of the truck that lost the wheel. The pickup truck driver, a 33-year-old man from Niagara Falls, N.Y., was later charged with “Detached part and operating an unsafe vehicle,” as confirmed by the police during the day.
