3 children killed in suspected impaired driving crash on Highway 401 in Toronto: police

A 19-year-old man has been charged with impaired driving causing death after three children were killed in an overnight crash on Highway 401 in Etobicoke, Toronto police say. 

The crash happened at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday near Renforth Drive and Highway 401 on the eastbound off ramp, police said in a news release. 

A Dodge Caravan was heading eastbound on Highway 401 and exited at Renforth Drive, Acting Insp. Baheer Sarbanandan said. The vehicle was travelling at high speed on the exit ramp, lost control and went over a raised median. 

It then collided with a Chrysler Pacifica minivan that was stopped at a red light, Sarbanandan said. Inside the minivan were a mother, her four children and an acquaintance of the family who was driving the vehicle.

A 15-year-old and a 13-year-old were pronounced dead at the scene, police said. A six-year-old girl was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead, Sarbanandan said. 

A woman, 35, and a man, 40, were taken to hospital along with a 10-year-old child. All three are in non-life threatening condition. 

'A family is torn apart'

"A family is torn apart," Sarbanandan said at a news conference on Sunday. 

Ethan Lehouillier, of Georgetown, Ont., faces three counts each of impaired operation of a conveyance causing death and impaired operation of a conveyance causing bodily harm. 

He has also been charged with three counts each of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Lehouillier was the only person in the Dodge Caravan, police said in a post on X. 

Police are looking for witnesses who saw the Dodge Caravan driving on Highway 401 prior to the crash. They are also looking for dashcam footage, Sarbanandan said. 

Anyone with information is asked to contact police or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers. 

Renforth Drive is closed for the police investigation.

Almost a decade since Neville-Lake tragedy

The crash comes nearly a decade after a comparable incident in September 2015 in which another impaired driver caused the deaths of three children and their grandfather.

On Sept. 27, 2015, Daniel Neville-Lake, 9, his brother Harrison, 5, and sister Milly, 2, and Gary Neville, 65, died after the crash in Vaughan, Ont. The children's grandmother and great-grandmother were also seriously injured.

Marco Muzzo was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2016 to four counts of impaired driving causing death and two of impaired driving causing bodily harm. He is also under a 12-year driving ban.

Muzzo was granted full parole in February 2021 and subjected to a number of conditions including that he stay out of Brampton, Ont., and the Regional Municipality of York.

Jennifer Neville-Lake, the children's mother, made a post of "grief and solidarity" with the victims of Sunday's crash in an afternoon Instagram post.

"I'm heartbroken after hearing the news," she wrote in the caption to a photo depicting several pale yellow and blue packets of forget-me-not, sunflower and moonflower seeds. "I am so so sorry."