Fatal crash on Hwy 69 stops traffic north of Harris Lake Road

Provincial police have confirmed a transport driver has died in a Highway 69 in a multi-vehicle crash last night.

At about 9:20 p.m., police and emergency services from Parry Sound and Britt were sent to the  four-vehicle crash north of Harris Lake Road, OPP said.

A tractor trailer hauling about 60 cows was headed south when it hit the blade of a northbound plough truck.

The tractor trailer then hit an oncoming minivan. Then, continuing southbound, that same tractor trailer hit another transport truck head-on. Both hit a rock cut before being engulfed in flames.

The fire has been put out, but Britt fire chief Larry Olds told CBC News on Friday morning that they were still trying to round up the cows roaming around on Highway 69.

"They were travelling quite a ways north and south up the highway,' he said.

"People who look after the highways rounded them up and corralled them, until somebody could come pick them up. Cows were weaving in and out of traffic. We're lucky there weren't more accidents."

Olds said that one of the fire trucks struck and killed a cow, while several more died in the fire.

The driver of the cattle truck died, but has not been identified, police reported.

Five people who were riding in the mini-van were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Highway 69 remains closed along a 75-kilometre stretch from just north of Parry Sound to the Key River bridge, between Highway 124 and Highway 522.

A tweet of two cows found roaming on the side of Highway 69 on Friday.