Driver who killed two pedestrians and self in Etobicoke crash had just left scene of other collision, police say
The driver who killed two pedestrians and himself in a high-speed collision Thursday evening in south Etobicoke had just left the scene of another crash, police say.
According to police, the 36-year-old man had been driving a white SUV eastbound on Lake Shore Boulevard West near Eighth Street when he struck a parked van and came to a complete stop.
The driver of the white SUV, a Cadillac, was having what appeared to be a seizure and was unresponsive," traffic police said in a news release Friday. The window of the vehicle was smashed to open the door and help the driver."
While emergency services were on scene, the driver then got back into the SUV and drove off before responding police officers arrived.
Minutes later, the same driver reportedly ran through a red light at a very high speed, struck two pedestrians, then hit a parked flatbed trailer and was ejected through the windshield.
The pedestrians, a 75-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman, were walking in a marked crosswalk from the northside of Lakeshore Boulevard and had the right of way. They, and the driver, were pronounced dead at the scene.
According to police, the driver, who hasn't been identified, was facing a Criminal Code driving prohibition. He was also under a provincial driver's license medical suspension, and was facing an additional administrative provincial driver's license suspension.
A video of a man in a white SUV interacting with firefighters on Lake Shore Boulevard West surfaced on a south Etobicoke social media group late Thursday evening.
In the clip, the man can be seen having an interaction with firefighters, before he gets into the white SUV and drives away.
A spokesperson from Toronto Fire confirmed that they were contacted for a single-vehicle accident at Lake Shore Boulevard West and Eighth Avenue around 5:24 p.m. Fire crews had a brief interaction with the driver of a white SUV at the incident. The man appeared uninjured, but suddenly chose to drive away from the scene.
Toronto police told the Star they were aware of the earlier incident, and the video had been sent to investigators assigned to this case.
Witness Harsh Singh said he was waiting for the bus along Lake Shore when he saw a white SUV drive by. He noticed right away that there was damage to the front passenger side.
I was like, what happened? This is like a brand new car, it had this big dent on the passenger side,'" Singh said.
He noted the car was going slow at the time - he estimated about 20 kilometres per hour. He later came to the scene of the fatal crash, saying it appeared that the white SUV involved in the fatal collision was the same damaged one he saw driving east.
With files from Wendy Gillis and Akrit Michael
Gilbert Ngabo is a Toronto-based crime reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @dugilbo