Transport truck driver charged after going wrong way on QEW for 8.5 km

A tractor trailer operator was charged with careless driving Wednesday after provincial police pulled him over heading the wrong way on the Queen Elizabeth Way in Mississauga overnight.

The truck was travelling westbound at highway speed in the eastbound lanes from Cawthra Road to Erin Mills Parkway — a distance of about 8.5 kilometres — around 3:27 a.m., according to OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt.

Multiple people reported seeing the tractor trailer to police, who rushed to the area alongside a number of tow truck operators.

Romel Yusefian was the first tow truck driver to catch up to tractor trailer.

“I tried to catch up to him. Finally I put on my beacon lights and I made him stop,” he said, adding that it’s a particularly dark stretch of highway.

Police arrived shortly after and closed the highway so the transport truck could move safely onto Erin Mills Parkway.

According to Schmidt, the driver became confused in construction, followed his GPS and eventually realized he was going the wrong way, but kept going anyway.

“He had three close calls during the time we were chasing him. But thank God, nobody got injured,” Yusefian said.

The driver, a 55-year-old man from Quebec, was charged with one count of careless driving, Schmidt said.