On Mother’s Day this year, the three of us were heading down to the Jays game to celebrate the motherhood of Sonia.  We left at 11:00. At 10:45 that morning, a truck exploded on the 401 just shy of the Milton/Hwy25 cutoff. Total and complete shutdown. Â
Without the radio on we had no idea something was wrong until just after the 6 South cutoff. Rounding a corner we saw a lot of cars flashing a lot of brakelights. Instantly we knew we were fried. Those familiar with the area know there are not many exits there and at this point we knew not were the accident was. Which by the way was still about 20kms up the road.
On a beautiful sunny Mother’s Day, high of around 20 Celsius with 4 Jays tickets in hand, a toddler slept in the back seat (thank God), 2 adults listened to that same Jays game for which the tickets provided admission. On a scratchy AM frequency (570am). Which is just a few clicks away from 680am where there are 10 minute updates on traffic throughout the day. A day we should have been listening to this station as soon as we left the driveway. A station we will always listen to when leaving the driveway and frequently on any road trip through TO on the 401.
For this would have been a way to prevent the 5 hr jam that ensued.  I’ve been in traffic jams before but this beats them all.  It can drive a person to extremes. I admit I was not able to manage the situation very well and slipped into a serious state of depression and edginess. Sonia and OG were able to keep it together quite easily which was a very humbling experience to say the least.
The icing on the preverbial cake of crap was that the traffic reports at one point indicated that 2 (two) lanes had opened up.  Just at that moment what seemed at the time a result of this but was later explained by something far idiotic and controllable by MTO and OPP: the traffic sped up. Able to get to 80kms an hr for about 5 clicks which meant we coasted past the next available exit. But no need to get off right? The lanes are opening and the traffic is moving…..for about 2 more kms and then deadlock again. For another 2 hrs.
Eventually we made it through. When we got to the scene there were NO lanes open. Just the shoulder where 3 lanes of traffic were squeezing in, including transport trucks that WERE ONCE NOT ALLOWED ON THE 401 ON SUNDAYS.
Wha happened to the 2 lanes? This is were the idiots come out of the woodworks. Obviously there was a !#$% up. MTO/OPP were not properly communicating and I believe this is what happened and I KNOW I can’t be proven wrong: The poor channels of communication sent misinformation down the road to the closest exit we were reaching way back in the beginning of this mess. When they were told that there were lanes opening up, they re-opened the 401 at our closest exit. This is why there was this unfortunately timed speed up when we heard the ‘good’ news on the radio.
OK, so we were victims of circumstance. The kicker to this whole thing is that after having some dinner and then driving home a couple of hrs later, they still hadn’t opened any lanes. For the next 25kms there was bumper to bumper. Basically back towards KW before the 6N cutoff to Guelph. Why in God’s name had MTO/OPP not re-closed the ramps onto the 401? What sort of sadistic madman runs this show? I was truly sorry for these people. Especially those who were still about 2kms from knowing their fate. Except for one guy I saw backing up and working his way back to the exit he just passed. A VERY dangerous move but highly profitable if he pulled it off. I wasn’t sorry for that guy.
So, I plea: what can be done to prevent this? It seems like a simple enough solution to resolve. I have some ideas:Â
1) Use more of those ‘info’ signs you see plenty of in the TO area. You know, the ones that say: ‘Expressway slow. Collectors moving well’. Compare the time/money loss of that traffic jam with the one time cost of setting up some more of these in logical areas along the 401. People could then be forewarned to get off on an earlier exit.
2) Have well placed service road exit-only locations. Exits that don’t really get you anywhere useful except in emergency cases. You see these all the time in the US on major highways.
These are just 2. Couple that with much better situational training of how to deal with these situations and make sure everyone’s on the same page will go a long way. Just by shutting down exits when they should be shut down is a big step in the right direction. Don’t waste our time when it’s simple to resolve!