Latest news with #ThamesCentre
CTV News
28-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Councillors request safety study for site where five died
Thames Centre councillors have requested a safety study for the site of a collision that claimed five lives. The decision was made unanimously, which will see the Thorndale and Cobble Hills intersection studied. It will take place after the OPP finish their investigation into the crash that took the lives of four students and a teacher from Walkerton.
CTV News
26-05-2025
- CTV News
‘How could this have possibly happened': Attention turns to Thames Centre intersection where five lives were lost
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.
CBC
26-05-2025
- CBC
In wake of London, Ont.-area crash that killed 5, municipality asked to consider safety upgrades
Local councillors are calling for safety improvements at an intersection outside London, Ont., after four high school students and a teacher died following a crash on Friday. A motion set to be considered at this evening's Thames Centre council meeting calls on the upper-tier municipalities of Middlesex and Oxford to conduct a traffic and roadway study of the intersection once the ongoing OPP investigation wraps up. It was at that intersection, at about 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday, that four high school students — aged 16 to 17 — and their 33-year-old teacher died after the SUV they were riding in collided with a transport truck. Following the initial collision, the SUV was then struck by a second SUV. Three of the five died at the scene and the two others died in hospital. The driver of the transport truck and two people in the other SUV suffered minor injuries. The students and teacher were on their way home to Walkerton — two hours away — after competing in a high school softball tournament in Dorchester, just east of London. The students have been identified as Olivia Rourke, Rowan McLeod, Kaydance Ford and Danica Baker. Their teacher was Matt Eckert. The tragedy has prompted an outpouring of support. Friends and family members held a vigil Sunday in Walkerton. Thames Centre Coun. Thomas Heeman is backing a motion that calls on the upper-tier municipalities of Middlesex Centre and Oxford County to consider undertaking a traffic study of the intersection to find ways to improve its safety. "We haven't seen a loss of life this significant in some time," said Heeman. "I think the council wants to indicate that we want to work in partnership with the county ... on whatever can be done to learn from this situation and prevent such an incident in the future." Cobble Hills Road is two lanes and runs north-south. Drivers on Cobble Hills come to a stop sign at the intersection of the busier Thorndale Road. Tyson Ball is general manager of the Cobble Hills Golf Club, located two kilometres south of the intersection with Thorndale Road. He frequently drives through the intersection. Ball didn't comment on what may have caused Friday's crash, but welcomes any safety enhancements to the road. Drivers often reach highway speeds on the open farm roads and then blow past stop signs, creating the potential for deadly T-bone collisions, Ball added. "They're 80-kilometre-an-hour highways but drivers tend to drive that or a little bit faster," he said. "And we have a lot of people that just drive through the stop signs, whether they don't see them, or they're distracted or it's night-time or whatever." Ball said adding rumble strips on Cobble Hills Road near the Thorndale Road intersection might help. The strips generate noise to alert drivers they're coming to a stop sign. About five kilometres south of Friday's crash site is the intersection of Cobble Hills Road and Evelyn Drive, where lights were added atop stop signs after a number of crashes, including a fatal collision in 2022. Heeman would like the municipality to consider that kind of upgrade at the intersection where Friday's crash happened. "It's just finding ways to highlight [the stop signs] so they become more visible," he said. Woman travels to area to honour the victims Meanwhile, mourning the students and teacher continues. On Monday, Valerie Brown made a special trip to the crash site from Woodstock, about 30 minutes away, to place a bouquet of flowers at the roadside. "I just couldn't stop thinking about the girls, and their families, and the teacher, and the poor town and everybody concerned," said Brown. "I have a 16-year-old granddaughter who plays hockey and she could be in the same situation. "I feel so deeply for the people of Walkerton, and I just wanted the parents and the town to know that there are so many people out here that think about them, that care about them and sympathize with them."
CTV News
24-05-2025
- CTV News
Crash claims 5 lives in Middlesex County, including 4 teens
The scene of a fatal collision that occurred on May 23, 2025, near Thorndale Road and Cobble Hills Road in Thames Centre, east of Thorndale, seen on May 24, 2025. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)
CTV News
12-05-2025
- CTV News
Police seize suspected fentanyl in 401 traffic stop
Suspected fentanyl was among the items seized in an OPP traffic stop in Thames Centre on Friday afternoon. According to police, a traffic stop of a 'suspicious vehicle' on Highway 401 at Dorchester Road resulted in police discovering that the driver had a suspended license. Following their arrest, a search of the vehicle resulted in the seizure of suspected fentanyl, as well as other drugs. Police say that a 28-year-old faces charges of:
