

Web Staff, cp24.com





The male driver of a stolen tractor-trailer is in custody after leading Ontario Provincial Police officers on a chase across a wide swath of southern Ontario for several hours Monday.

The hours-long incident came to a peaceful end when the driver pulled over to the right side of the QEW's Toronto-bound lanes near Fairview Street in Burlington, just north of the Burlington Skyway, at about 1:20 p.m.

Once the vehicle came to a stop, officers who were following the tractor-trailer surrounded the vehicle and arrested the driver on the side of the highway.

A photo provided by a CP24 viewer shows the driver walking towards police officers, whose guns are drawn and pointed towards the man, with his hands raised in the air.

"We're quite thankful this ended peacefully and safely for everybody involved," said OPP Insp. Dave Ross. "The goal here was public safety, to get the vehicle off the road in a safe manner and we feel that's been accomplished."



Ross said police will release more information about the driver later Monday.

For several hours and over a great distance, police followed the tractor-trailer as it zig-zagged across southern Ontario, and at one point were urging people to follow news reports and avoid travelling on whatever highway the tractor-trailer was using.

"Public safety is the main consideration," Ross said shortly before the driver was arrested. "This could take some time, but it's important to recognize public safety is what we're looking for.

"If you see this vehicle coming into your rear-view vehicle with a convoy of police move over to your right and let it proceed," Ross said.

Ross said there is no indication the vehicle was a threat to public safety.

An OPP helicopter monitored the tractor-trailer from above and relayed information to officers on the ground.

OPP said the tractor-trailer was reported stolen from a Husky truck stop in Niagara-on-the-Lake at 4 a.m. by a man who leases the vehicle. The man told police he parked the tractor-trailer Sunday afternoon and returned Monday morning to find it missing.

After the vehicle was first spotted by police, OPP chased the fleeing rig along the QEW as it approached the GTA, but officers eventually abandoned the pursuit after the driver refused to stop.

Members of Halton and Peel regional police services joined the chase, but they disengaged as the truck fled west on Highway 401 towards Kitchener-Waterloo.

At one point, the truck turned around and headed east on Highway 401 towards Mississauga before heading south on Highway 427 to the Gardiner Expressway and getting back on the QEW.

From there, police followed the tractor-trailer south to Niagara Falls, where the driver turned around and headed back towards Burlington before the man was arrested.

Border officials were preparing for the vehicle as it approached the Canada-U.S. border.

OPP spokesman Sgt. Dave Woodford said officers were being cautious and tailing the rig from a distance because they didn't want to endanger lives.

It was too dangerous for the officers to attempt to stop the tractor-trailer because of its size and weight and because of the risk of a collision, so their plan was to wait until the driver voluntarily ended the pursuit or until the vehicle ran out of fuel.