Two children and two adults were critically injured in a fiery crash on Highway 417 during rush hour Friday in Ottawa’s west end, paramedics say.
An Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) spokesperson said they received a call shortly after 4 p.m. for a crash involving multiple vehicles on the highway near Palladium Drive and Carp Road in Stittsville.
Ottawa paramedics said they responded to a three-vehicle crash and treated seven patients.
A three-year-old boy was airlifted in life-threatening condition to a children’s trauma centre following the crash, they said.
Meanwhile, a three-year-old girl, and an adult woman and man also sustained life-threatening injuries and were taken by ground to trauma centres, paramedics said.
Another man was seriously injured and was taken to the hospital in stable condition. Two others were treated on scene and didn’t require hospitalization, paramedics said.
Vehicle caught fire
Dan Kirvan, a spokesperson for the special operations unit of Ottawa Fire Services, told CBC News that one of the three vehicles involved caught fire.
He said fire crews extricated one person from one vehicle.
All lanes of the highway were shut down west of Palladium Drive immediately after the collision, OPP said in a social media post just before 4:30 p.m. The closures would remain in place for several hours, police said.
Paramedics say one eastbound lane has since reopened.