On a weekend where Ontario Provincial Police are out on the highways reminding motorists to be on their best driving behaviour, at least seven people have died - four of them children - and well over a dozen have been sent to hospital to be treated for injuries across the GTA and Southern Ontario.
"It has been a very ugly weekend," OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told NEWSTALK1010 late Monday afternoon. "All across the province, we're dealing with all sorts of issues across the highways."
In the latest collision, a 22-year-old motorcyclist died after a crash in the southbound lanes of Highway 427, south of Highway 401.
Earlier, the OPP were called to Highway 10 in Caledon Monday morning for a crash that left a 6-year-old girl dead and a 36-year-old man seriously injured.
Police say the collision involved a vehicle and a tractor trailer that were both travelling north. The 36-year-old man was the driver of the vehicle and the girl was the passenger. No one in the tractor trailer was injured.
“At this point we are not ruling out any factors," OPP Sgt. Kathe Kiamos told CP24. "All factors are being considered.”
Police say they won't release the identities or the relationship between the two victims until the family is notified.
On Saturday, a crash west of Newmarket on Davis Drive sent eight people to hospital, many of the injuries considered serious or critical. One of the individuals listed in critical condition was a 2-year-old.
That evening, a collision between an SUV and a Corvette near Highway 50 and Countryside Drive in Brampton killed a woman and two children from Woodbridge, and sent two other adults and a child to hospital.
Outside of the GTA, a 3-year-old girl from East York died after being struck by a pickup truck at Pinery Provincial Park in Grand Bend. The driver - also from East York - was trying to make a u-turn when she was hit at about 5:30 that afternoon.
Then on Sunday, one person died in an early morning crash near McLaughlin Road and Mayfield in Caledon, while a male motorcyclist was sent to hospital with life-threatening injuries after a collision in Mississauga in the afternoon.
And as the OPP spent the weekend on highways reminding motorists about the 'slow down and move over' law, one tow truck driver had the scare of his life following a crash on Highway 401 near Port Union Road Saturday evening.
The tow truck operator, Adil Kanan, captured the video on his dashcam.
That crash sent multiple people to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
"We're out there doing our jobs and people that don't pay attention, sometimes slam in the back of stopped vehicles and tow trucks, fire trucks, ambulances, police cars - when the lights are flashing, you gotta slow down, you need to move over," Schmidt said.
- With files from CP24