A 32-year-old man has been charged in connection with a five-vehicle crash on a major highway west of Toronto that killed a woman and injured several others late last month, provincial police said Thursday.

Yasir Baig, of Mississauga, turned himself in to police late Wednesday evening, OPP said, and was charged Thursday with four criminal counts, including dangerous driving causing death and failing to remain at the scene of a collision.

The crash happened at about 10 p.m. Jan. 27 on the Queen Elizabeth Way in Mississauga.

Twenty-two-year-old Nicole Turcotte of Niagara Falls, was killed; a 19-year-old woman was sent to hospital in critical condition; and five others suffered minor injuries, police said.

In total, 12 people were involved in what OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt called “an absolutely horrific crash.”

The driver of a Honda Civic is alleged to have switched from the middle eastbound lane into the left lane before suddenly slowing down “for an unknown reason,” causing a chain-reaction crash of five vehicles travelling behind, Schmidt said.

Images from the scene showed crumpled vehicles piled across multiple lanes with debris scattered across the road.

The driver who was allegedly responsible for the pileup fled the scene, Schmidt said, adding that tips from the public helped identify the vehicle and its driver.

A relative of Turcotte told reporters Thursday that the young woman had been in her last semester at the photography program at Humber College.

“Even the students at the school are greatly affected by this ... and they are going to honour her memory by mentioning her in graduation,” Brandy Sommers Wood said. “She was such an amazing part of the school and it has just affected so many communities.”

Sommers Wood said Turcotte’s mother is “beside herself with grief.”

“You just can’t describe a mother’s grief when she’s lost her daughter,” she said, adding that Turcotte’s funeral was Monday. “They were best friends, they weren’t just mother and daughter.”

At the time of the crash, Turcotte and her boyfriend had been on their way home from Niagara Falls after visiting one of his family members, Sommers Wood said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“They just started living together and started their life together,” she said of Turcotte and her boyfriend. “It is devastating to him and his family, too.”

Sommers Wood added that she hopes the incident will serve as a reminder to drivers that “it only takes a moment of stupidity to lose a life.”

Read more about: