Two people are dead and a third is fighting for his life in hospital after an early-morning collision in Mississauga.
Provincial police say it happened shortly before 9 a.m. while a Ford F-150 and a Lexus SUV were travelling westbound on a stretch of Highway 401.
Constable Kevin Westhead says the two vehicles collided with each other, which then sent the Ford through the concrete highway median and into the eastbound lanes where it crashed into an oncoming Dodge, on the 401 near Winston Churchill.
In a tweet this afternoon, the OPP confirmed that a man in his 60s and a woman in her 30s travelling in the Ford were pronounced dead, while a man in his 30s was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Peel Paramedics initially reported that both of the deceased were male.
Multiple other vehicles hit the debris from the two collisions. Two other people suffered minor injuries.
No other details about the victims killed in the crash have been released.
A stretch of the 401, between Mississauga Road and the 407, is expected to remain closed for much of the day as police continue to investigate the cause of the collision. Repairs to the centre median could take much longer.
"The closure will be at least 24 hours for the repairs, probably lanes one and two, so that would be in laymen's terms - the fast lane and the lane next to it - will be closed for at least the next 24 hours for the Ministry of Transportation to get out here and repair the centre median area," says Constable Westhead.
With files from the Canadian Press