Adventures on the 401

As my regular readers know, I now take the highway to work everyday. I spend the majority of the time traveling along the famous 401 (pronounced four oh one). Here are some facts about it (the story comes after the facts)
According to Wikipedia.com "Ontario provincial highway 401, which is normally referred to simply as Highway 401, is a freeway that extends across Southern Ontario, Canada. Known officially as the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, it is (by far) the longest 400-Series Highway in Ontario and one of the busiest highways in the world. Together with Quebec Autoroute 20, it is the road transportation backbone of the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, containing over half of Canada's population. The 400 and 401 interchange is also believed to be the busiest interchange in North America, with 26 lanes of combined traffic; my story begins a few miles from the 401/400 interchange.

As I was going through my daily commute I noticed traffic building in a place that is usually busy, but not that busy on a normal day, especially at 6:30 am!
So I came to a complete stop, moving mere inches in a span of 10 minutes, meanwhile police cars, ambulances, and fire engines were flying by on the emergency lane. I realized then, that the build up was not due to volume but rather an accident. I turned the radio on, to learn that there’s an accident only about 1 km from where I was. I also realized that I was lucky to miss it, especially being so close to the accident. So here’s what happened:

Some lunatic driver somehow made an 18 wheeler (big truck) flip on its side, literally blocking three lanes. The truck was carrying nothing else but beer. In fact it was reported that 2400 cases of beer spilled on the road “making the 401 smell like a local tavern” according to CBC radio. I got a glimpse of the mess when I diverted my route to a bridge which goes above the accident. The scene was bazaar, cans and bottle of beer everywhere, a tiny stream of beer making it’s way down the slope, firemen cleaning the debris and one police man licking his lips (at least I thought I saw him doing it). So I ended up being half an hour late for work. Apparently though, that wasn’t the end of it. Some guys at work were talking about another accident right after the beer one, this one though was tragic, since a helicopter was needed to air lift the injured. Meanwhile, 401 West drivers (the opposite side of the highway) were observing the accident while driving, which caused another accident. All in all, the situation was messy; I would estimate at least 50,000 were late for work this morning. So if you’re thinking oh my god this highway is dangerous, I assure you that today’s incidents don’t happen all the time. In fact the beer accident was caused by the careless driver, who’s now in the hospital suffering from “non life threatening injuries” and charged with careless driving.
Just thought I would share my highway adventures with you, hopefully this is the worst I’ll ever see :)