Man charged after dump truck container gets stuck on a major Toronto highway

A man has been charged under the Ontario Highway Traffic Act after a dump truck with its box raised slammed into an overpass in Mississauga early Wednesday, police say.

The charges are driving an unsafe vehicle and not having a prescribed inspection done, according to Sgt. Kerry Schmidt, spokesperson for the Ontario Provincial Police's highway safety division.

Several cars crashed in the collector lanes nearby after the dump truck box hit the overpass on Highway 401 in the eastbound express lanes approaching Mavis Road at about 7 a.m.

Traffic was heavily backed up in Mississauga and Milton after police closed the eastbound express lanes for hours, but the lanes have since been reopened.

Schmidt said the truck had just emptied a load at a nearby construction site when the driver drove off with the box raised and hit the next eastbound overpass.

The "box should be down when you're driving," Schmidt said in a video posted on Twitter.

Schmidt said the overpass has been damaged and engineers went to the site to assess the extent of the impact.

Not long after the dump truck crash, Schmidt posted another video on Twitter about a three-car crash in the collectors lanes, right next to where the truck hit the overpass.

"People not paying attention,' he said. "If you're going down the road, you've gotta look forward and be aware of changing traffic."