401 closed for smoky crash

Where were the police? Drivers were left without any information. I was westbound around 10 p.m. and waited in traffic for an hour east of Deseronto Road. When we got to Deseronto Rd, there was no police or barriers to direct us off the 401 – people didn’t know what to do. Some people exited at Deseronto Rd, some stayed on the highway, presumably to be trapped once they passed the Deseronto exit. Others skipped the whole traffic jam by driving on the shoulder for 10 kms to exit at Deseronto. There were unnoficial looking digital signs east of Napanee saying “Road Closed at exit 579″ They looked like construction signs. When I approached 579 and didn’t see any closure, I assumed the signs were’nt up to date. I don’t see why there weren’t barriers directing traffic off the highway where it was closed, instead of letting it continue. The road wasn’t closed at 579, it was closed at 570, Deseronto. I guess the sign should have said “Road closed at Marysville Rd., Exit 566, sue to accident. Exit early and avoid area.” I think it’s time to have proper digital signage along the 401, or perhaps a radio station with up to date information about traffic backups due to accidents and construction. Without knowing how long a traffic jam is, its difficult to plan a proper route. Maybe twitter behind the wheel isn’t such a bad idea.

Seriously, let’s not be too melodramatic……expecting to have some traffic redirection after a road closure is not asking too much, nor is it taking anything away from the families who lost loved ones.

You people who want to complain about the traffic, make me want to puke. I think you would feel differently, if lets say you or a loved one were involved in the accident.
The police are stretched very thin when there is an accident of this magnitude in this area…. actually any area. They are attending the scene to protect the public from themselves cause they got to get pictures and video and the police need to make sure the idiots don’t get too close and put themselves in harms way.
When I was in my accident and woke up to my team driver cursing before busting through a guardrail and jumping the truck 100 feet through the air down onto a bed of granite. Once the truck came to a stop and the police arrived I could have cared less about somebody losing a hour or two while they were getting us out and then cleaning up the mess. I was just glad to be alive.
The truckers in our country are the backbone of this nation. Next time if you are stuck in a traffic jam because of an accident, spend some time thinking about how you drive and what you can do to make the highways safer in this country.
In fact I would not be surprised to find out that the driver of the truck that went through the median. Might have saved some somebodys life by choosing the median as an excape route to avoid hitting a vehicle that cut him off.
It happened a few years ago on the 400 Northbound. Two vehicles racing cut off a truck and he choose to take his truck off the road, and into a ditch, losing his own life, to avoid killing somebody else.