Aman Kumar says that he feels “lucky to be alive” after colliding with a suspected stolen vehicle on Highway 401 amid icy conditions last week.
The crash, which was captured by a dashboard camera on Kumar’s transport truck, happened in the eastbound lanes of the highway near Weston Road at around 11:10 p.m. on Feb. 23.
The video footage provided to CP24 shows an SUV ahead that appears to lose control before veering across several lanes of traffic.
For a split second it seems like the fully-loaded, 53-foot truck might narrowly miss the SUV, however the footage then shows the SUV reversing directly into its path.
The transport truck ultimately slammed into the vehicle at about 67 kilometres an hour.
Ontario Provincial Police say that the driver of the SUV fled the scene on foot following the collision.
“He was out of my way. But in the last second, I don’t know why, he started reversing,” Kumar told CP24.com this week. “I feel really, really lucky to be alive actually. I have like five years of (transport truck) driving experience. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Kumar had just picked up a load in Toronto and was on his way to Kingston when the crash occured.
He said that he spotted the driver of the SUV beginning to lose control about four or five seconds before the moment of impact.
He said that he reacted immediately and was able to reduce his speed by about 30 kilometres an hour, as confirmed by a feature on his dashcam that logs his speed.
The road conditions, however, made it impossible to come to a full stop.
“If I would have hit a bit more brake the truck would have jackknifed and many other cars would have been under the trailer. So I had no option,” he said. “It would have been catastrophic.”
Kumar said that he did not sustain any physical injuries in the crash but was a little shaken up.
He said that the incident was a good reminder of the importance of always paying attention to what is happening ahead of you, especially amid winter road conditions.
“Even if it’s not your fault, somebody might do something so you should be vigilant every time and see what’s going on,” he said. “I saw four seconds back that he lost his control. Otherwise it would have been more dangerous. You can see in the footage the speed dropping.”
