7:50 p..m. update
Ontario 511 is reporting the west bound lane of the the section of Highway 69 just south of Harris Road between Britt and Point au Baril has been reopened.
Traffic control is present and allowing intermittent traffic through as if 6:40 p.m., it says.
West Parry Sound has also confirmed that the body discovered in the tractor trailer hauling cattle was that of the driver but police have not yet identified the driver.
Original story: 9:44 a.m.
OPP say one man was killed in a collision last night on Highway 69 that involved four vehicles.
The name of the man has not been released. Highway 69 remains closed as of 9:45 this morning and police do not have a timeline for reopening the busy highway.
Road conditions were bad at the time of the accident, police saying the surface was slippery and snow covered.
A detour has been set up with cars using Highway 529 and trucks using Highway 522.
OPP say at approximately 9:20 p.m. they, along with the Britt Fire Department, Carling Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services were called to a four vehicle collision on Highway 69 north of Harris Lake Road in the Township of Wallbridge, District of Parry Sound.
A tractor trailer hauling livestock cattle was travelling southbound on Highway 69 when it crossed the centre line and struck the blade of a northbound plow truck, say police.
The tractor trailer then hit a northbound minivan.
The tractor trailer then continued out of control southbound and struck head-on, a tractor trailer hauling vehicles. Both tractor trailers crashed into a rock cut and burst into flames.
“I can confirm that we just located a body within the tractor-trailer that was hauling the cows, and he is deceased,” Const. Zénobie Loach of the West Parry Sound OPP said this morning.
“He'll be sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto, and they'll be able to find out the identity of the individual from there.”
Technical Traffic Collision Investigators are currently (7 a.m.) processing the scene and the road remains closed as crews clean up.
The plow driver, and the driver of the tractor trailer hauling vehicles, were uninjured but the five occupants of the minivan suffered non-life threatening injuries.
The driver of the tractor trailer hauling livestock died in the collision. Some of the cattle being hauled on the tractor-trailer also died as a result of the collision, Loach said.
Loach said the tractor-trailer hauling cattle was driving in an area where the southbound portion of the highway had one lane.
“The plow, the minivan and the tractor-trailer hauling the cars, they were heading northbound, and they had two lanes,” she said.
“The plow was covering both of those lanes. Everybody was in behind him at a slow rate of speed. It all happened very, very quickly.”
The collision investigators have now left the scene, and tow trucks are removing the vehicles, Loach said.
The closed portion of the highway has to be salted and sanded before it's reopened. When asked if the road will be reopened before noon, Loach said she hopes so.
The cause of the collision is still under investigation.
BayToday will update as more information becomes available.
