OPP Media Release
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Officers from the Sudbury Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police responded to a motor vehicle collision which occurred at 7:15 a.m. this morning on Highway 69, Bigwood Township (1.5 kilometers south of Allstone Road).
A northbound full size van crossed the centre line and collided head-on with a southbound tractor-trailer unit.
The driver of the van, William Fredrick HOOEY, age 26, of Echo Bay, ON, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, a southern Ontario male, was taken to the St. Joseph's Health Centre in Sudbury by ambulance and suffers from serious but non-life threatening injuries.
An OPP Technical Traffic Collision Investigator and a Collision Reconstructionist attended the scene to assist with the investigation. The French River Fire Department also attended the scene.
As a result of a diesel spill due to the collision, the Ministry of Environment was notified and attended the scene.
The highway had to be closed for eight hours for the investigation along with clean-up and has just been re-opened to both northbound and southbound traffic.
A post mortem is scheduled to be conducted tomorrow in Sudbury to determine the cause of death.
The investigation is continuing.
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