‘How could this have possibly happened': Attention turns to Thames Centre intersection where five lives were lost

CTV News

26-05-2025

A candlelit vigil was held to honour the five victims killed in a crash. Scott Miller reports.
While Walkerton grieves the loss of the five victims in Friday's crash in Thames Centre, attention has also turned to the intersection where the crash took place.
Walkerton crash Thames Centre - May 2025
Flowers and stuffed toys seen at the site of the crash in Thames Centre, Ont. on May 26, 2025. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)
Traffic was back to normal on Monday along Thorndale Road at Cobble Hills Road northeast of London. An indentation through a ditch and into a farmer's field and flowers attached to a barbed wire fence, were what's left after the tragic collision.
Commuter Mark Pinnegar, who travels through this intersection several times a week, is trying to make sense of it.
Walkerton crash Thames Centre - May 2025
Mark Pinnegar, who travels through the intersection multiple times a week, seen in Thames Centre, Ont. on May 26, 2025. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)
'I know the intersection well, and I couldn't figure out why, at that time of the day on Friday with the weather that we had, how this could have possibly happened. I just, I don't know,' he mused aloud with exasperation.
Middlesex OPP said late Friday afternoon an SUV collided with a transport truck, before colliding with a second vehicle at the intersection. All five people in the SUV died.
Ron Steele owns the land on the southwest corner where the vehicle came to rest, about 200 feet west of the stop sign on Cobble Hills Road. He said he has seen crashes along this stretch of Thorndale Road, but not at this particular intersection.
'Well, the only thing out of the ordinary is that it has the hill over there, which is a little difficult seeing traffic coming this way,' he explained, referring to drivers coming from the south and checking to their east for any westbound traffic.
Walkerton crash Thames Centre - May 2025
A speed limit sign seen near the intersection of Cobble Hills Road and Thorndale Road in Thames Centre, Ont. on May 26, 2025. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)
Cyclist Rob Moser said he has seen drivers on Cobble Hills Road miss the stop sign.
'Especially if you're coming from the south, you come over a few risers and then it's like 'okay, pick up some speed now.' You just have to look out to a farm field, and you miss the stop sign altogether,' he said.
Cobble Hills Road borders Middlesex and Oxford Counties. Thames Centre Council will consider a motion at its Monday meeting asking both counties to consider 'conducting a comprehensive traffic and roadway study of the intersection following the conclusion of the ongoing OPP investigation.'
In the meantime, Mark Pinnegar said he can't help but think of the families affected by the tragedy at this rural crossroads.
'It might not really be any of my business to be here at all, but I've been consumed by this since it happened. And it's just a sad, sad thing,' he lamented.