"I heard the crash on the highway but I didn't hear nobody pray."

Today I sat down and leisurely read my way through the Saturday paper, my favorite sections first. When I finished the color comics (save the best for last!) I noticed the front section, which had been under all the others. “410 crash: ten years later” it said, right at the top, a reminder of everyone’s worst nightmare, that unaccountable sudden tragedy that swoops down from out of nowhere. It’s a day many people can never forget. And unlike the crash in Roy Acuff's song, "The Wreck on the Highway", it wasn't caused by whiskey, but by poor road design.

Highway 401 runs across Ontario, and through Essex County, where I live, ending at the run-up to the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit, the busiest border crossing between Canada and the United States. On the day of the crash, the beginning of a Labor Day Weekend, a thick fog settled across part of the 401, and cars doing 100km an hour suddenly drove into a wall of blackness. A transport truck hit that wall, hit his brakes, and the resulting carnage spread over more than a kilometer of highway, four lanes wide. The chain reaction was over in minutes, and so loud that people heard it several miles away. Eight people died, 45 were hurt, and many more were left grieving.

The agony of those survivors, and the family and friends of those who died cannot be underestimated. I’m thinking today of another group of people, the people who were too early or too late for the crash, who for some reason were delayed in getting on the highway, or left earlier on a whim. A friend at church missed the whole thing because he went to get cash at an ATM, not his usual habit. Instead of just grabbing a Tims (coffee, for you foreigners) before his commute to work in London, he went by the bank. He had no idea what made him do it. I’m sure there are others who today are remembering their near miss with death, and wondering what caused it. Why were they spared? And spared for what? Was there even a reason, or was this just another example of the randomness of the universe?

I don’t have an answer. I’m glad our friend was spared, as just thinking about him makes me smile. He does that to people. I’m pretty sure he believes that God had more work for him to do, and that taking him home in 1999 wasn’t the plan.

It could be argued that this was literally an accident just waiting to happen. That stretch of the 401 is regularly plagued by fogs and mists, given the right air temperature and humidity. Driving through that stretch of road at night was terrifying, when there was even a little fog. And there was only a narrow shoulder between the car and a ditch.

Now, of course, the shoulder has been widened, and a rumble strip added. That was two of the 18 recommendations that arose from the coroner’s inquest. As a bonus, two more lanes have been added, and a median barrier to replace the “rollover ditch” that regularly flung wandering cars into oncoming lanes of traffic. The Ohio Turnpike has had these safety features in place for many years, which is not a comfort to those of us who feel we have diced with fate every time we drive to London or Toronto. So, was the horrible crash the twisted will of a malign fate, or was it due simply to lack of oversight from the Ministry of Transportation, despite years of complaints by groups (including the CAA) and individuals? Did this tragedy just come down to politics? That won’t matter to the people who cringe away from the headline this weekend. I'll be enjoying a safer Highway 401 this weekend as I drive to London, and I'll be thinking of that crash ten years ago.