The inquest into one of the worst traffic accidents in Ontario history opened Wednesday. Eight people were killed and 45 injured in a chain reaction accident last September, on a stretch of Canada's busiest highway - the 401.

Tim Natyshak was driving to work on a four-lane stretch of the highway just east of Windsor.

A thick blanket of fog rolled onto the highway and Natyshak's vehicle ran into a pick-up truck.

Eighty-five other vehicles, including a number of semi-trailers, were involved in the deadly crash.

Natyshak escaped from his vehicle and wandered along a horrific accident scene:

"There was a minivan under a flatbed trailer... and on top of that there was another semi. They were stacked three high and there was diesel fuel leaking there."

Six of the people who died were trapped in a fire at the centre of the pileup.

Dennis Harrison is the Essex County Crown attorney.

He says the inquest will call attention to this accident, and to other traffic deaths that happened on that stretch of the 401, which is referred to locally as 'carnage alley.'

"There are still a number of other bad collisions on that highway and we're going to hear about those, and what contributed to those, and what if anything can be done to try to reduce those," he said.

And even as the inquest began, there was another reminder of just how dangerous that stretch of the 401 can be.

Three provincial police officers were seriously injured in an accident with a tractor trailer. Three civilians were also injured.

The officers had pulled over a suspect, and parked their cruisers on the side of the highway.. They were all standing beside the cars when the truck plowed into them from behind.

Rescuers had to use the jaws of life to pull one officer from the mangled wreckage.