One person is dead and Highway 101 east of Timmins between Reid Lake and Municipal Road remains closed at this hour following a collision between a tractor-trailer unit and a pickup truck.
Ontario Provincial Police and Black River-Matheson Fire department officers are on the scene, but there are no official details to release as yet.
A witness who lives a few metres from the accident site on Highway 101 reported hearing the sound of a collision shortly after 9 a.m. He reported a fireball, and from a distance it appears the pickup truck may have burst into flames. The tractor trailer unit was carrying a load of motor vehicles, westbound toward Timmins. The pickup track was head east towards Matheson. It, too, is off the road, partially up an embankment on the south side of Highway 101.
The witness said he finally was able to approach the pickup truck, which was resting off the road in a ditch on the south side of Highway 101, and he said, after checking for a pulse, that the male occupant of the truck appeared to be deceased.
Police and fire officials have released no further details about the accident. There is no word yet as to when the highway will be reopened to traffic.
