Eleven people were killed and three others injured Monday when a large passenger van was struck by a flatbed truck at a quiet Perth County crossroads.
It is among the worst road fatalities in Canada's history.
"I've been on the job 28 years, and I've never seen anything like this collision tonight," said Insp. Steve Porter, detachment commander for the Perth County OPP.
The crash occurred at 4:51 p.m. at the intersection of Perth Road 107 and Line 47 in the hamlet of Hampstead, north of Shakespeare
A 15-passenger white van - which was carrying 13 migrant workers, according to police - was travelling west on Line 47 when it was struck broadside by a large flatbed truck, also known as a stake or straight truck, travelling south on Road 107.
Line 47 is controlled by a stop sign, giving traffic on 107 the right of way.
Ten of the victims pronounced dead at the scene were from the passenger van. The driver of the flatbed truck was also pronounced dead at the scene.
Although police wouldn't confirm the identities of any of the victims, Albert Burgers, co-owner of Hampstead Poultry where the deceased migrant workers from Peru were working, said they had helped vaccinate about 16,500 chickens on Monday.
"I'm shocked," Burgers told The Record late Monday night.
"I always give them doughnuts and all the pop they can drink," he said. "They were a really happy bunch. They did an excellent job and I told them."
"It's sad to see these faces and then 15 minutes later they're dead," he said, taking a deep breath.
Burgers said five of the men were new to Canada. He said he thought they lived in Kitchener, but was unsure.
Burgers said the workers had arrived in two vans. At the end of the day they left the barn, which is located near the intersection where the crash happened.
Burgers said he went to another farm, located 1.5 km south of the crash site, for about 15 minutes. When he returned, Burgers said he saw the overturned flatbed truck.
"I said ?It cannot be the chicken catchers because they were gone already.'"
Burgers said he was surprised the workers' van was involved in the crash because they had left his farm so much earlier.
Burgers said they might have gone elsewhere before returning to the intersection.
"It's a real shock," he said. "I don't know the people by name, but you work with them and I really like them and they do (an) excellent job. I really treat them very good."
The impact left the wreckage of the passenger van against the side wall of a home near the intersection. The truck rolled over into the front yard of the home.
Police held a news conference at the intersection at 9 p.m., but did not release any further details about the victims.
Police said a significant amount of work has to be done to confirm the identities of the victims and to notify next of kin.
The hamlet is home to a handful of residences and commercial properties.
A man who lives near the intersection was too shaken up to talk about what he witnessed in the minutes following the crash.
Porter said critical incident stress counsellors have been brought in to assist police officers, firefighters and paramedics in the aftermath of the grisly tragedy.
As twilight settled over the scene, firefighters held up tarps as crews worked to free people from around both vehicles.
Several paramedics returned to their ambulances with empty stretchers, with the knowledge that there was nothing more they could do for some of the victims.
An air ambulance landed on the road to carry one survivor from the van to a Hamilton hospital. Two other survivors from the van were taken by land ambulances to Stratford General Hospital. The conditions of the survivors weren't known late Monday night.
Hours after the crash, police investigators used orange cones to try to mark the paths of the two vehicles. Collision reconstruction experts were expected to remain at the scene all night and into this morning.
It's not known if there were enough seatbelts in the passenger van for all of the occupants, or whether the majority of the passengers were wearing seatbelts. Porter said firefighters did have to cut through a number of seatbelts to free victims.
Late Monday night, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty issued a statement expressing his sadness about the tragedy.
"On behalf of 13 million Ontarians, I want to offer our deepest condolences to those who lost a loved one and to offer our most sincere prayers for those taken to hospital," he said.
Police asked anyone with information about the crash or the events leading up to it to call them at 1-888-310-1122.
[email protected], with files from Mirko Petricevic, Record staff
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