Truck driver dead in sinkhole crash amid ‘monumental’ flooding: OPP

A transport driver died when his rig crashed in a massive sinkhole caused by flooding in a rare storm that dumped as much as 190 millimetres of rain in parts of Southwestern Ontario.

A transport truck was travelling on Dundonald Road, just north of Glencoe, shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday when the pavement collapsed over a culvert, bringing the vehicle to an abrupt stop, Middlesex OPP Const. Jeff Hare said.

“It appears it was almost simultaneous,” he said of the road gap that is roughly 6.5 metres wide across both lanes and 3.5 metres deep.

The truck driver, a 59-year-old man from Mississauga, died at the scene.

Allan Mayhew, mayor of Southwest Middlesex that includes Glencoe, extended his condolences to the family of the man who died.

“Our hearts go out to the trucker who lost his life. That’s our first concern,” he said.

The increase in severe weather events underscores the need for local governments to make their roads and buildings more climate-resilient, Mayhew said.

“We’re becoming a wetter Southwestern Ontario, whether you attribute that to climate change or natural phenomena. But the weather is changing and our standards of infrastructure are going to have to improve to mitigate ourselves through these extreme rainfalls.”

Municipal infrastructure is designed to withstand 38 mm of rainfall an hour, but some parts of Southwest Middlesex received far beyond that, Mayhew said.

“There’s always room for improvement . . . but some of the best infrastructure we had cannot handle this rainfall.”

The man was killed in what weather officials are calling a once-in-a-century rainstorm that caused widespread flooding and road closings across Southwestern Ontario, including Chatham-Kent, Windsor, Essex County, Sarnia and the London region.

“It’s a one-in-100-year event,” she said. “So, in other words, you can expect each year there is a one per cent chance that could happen, and it happened overnight.”

In comparison, only 20 mm of rain fell in London.

Kidd warned of more rainfall and high winds in the forecast for parts of the region Thursday, with the worst expected to hit the Windsor area. “It’s important everybody for today, and always, to be weather aware,” she said.

Across the region, provincial police were warning motorists to avoid travel due to crashes on roads washed out from flooding.

“We had some unprecedented storms come through,” Hare said, calling the flooding “monumental.”

In Glencoe, halfway between London and Chatham, residents rushed to help each other bail out flooded homes, Jana Nethercott said.

An older woman had water filling her laundry tub when the town’s sewer system started backing up, she said. “There were about eight people who went to save her basement.

“There were teenagers and older people. We were bailing her basement out for three hours last night.”

Nethercott said the heavy rainfall flooded the basement of her semi-detached home with a metre of water. But even still, she considers herself lucky, as some neighbours were forced to leave their homes due to the rising water levels.

One couple on Symes Street had more than two metres of water in their basement and “had to abandon their house last night,” Nethercott said.

The situation was similar in Warwick, a township of about 4,000, where up to 175 mm of rain caused major flooding on roads and water backup in homes and businesses.

“While we are fortunate that the situation does not pose a threat to public safety, financial loss is going to be huge,” Warwick Mayor Todd Case said in a statement.

“By declaring an emergency, we can raise public awareness and provide flexibility to call on partners to assist in the response if needed.”

Highway 402 between Strathroy and Sarnia was closed for several hours until it reopened by morning.

Chris Traini, the engineer for Middlesex County, said staff were out “all night” closing sections of area roads and putting out warning signs to keep people away from areas considered dangerous due to wash-outs or damage.

“We’re setting up detours as we speak,” Traini said Thursday afternoon.

The county was waiting for water levels to recede to investigate the gap on Dundonald Road, where the transport truck driver was killed. Traini estimates it will take “several weeks” to reopen.

The majority of county roads are designed to handle the size and load of any licensed vehicle in Ontario, Traini said, adding that includes heavy agricultural vehicles commonly seen in the region.

“The (collapse) certainly wasn’t caused by a deficiency in the capacity of the road to carry traffic,” he said. “It is related to the volume and amount and speed of water down in that area.”