The family of a man who caused a deadly collision on Highway 417 on Sunday say they're devastated.

Michael Bourque, 36, was going the wrong way in the highway's westbound lanes near Panmure Road when he collided with oncoming vehicles in what witnesses described as a "gruesome" scene.

The five-vehicle crash claimed the life of 62-year-old Corinne Monette and sent two men in their 20s to hospital. Bourque also died in the crash.

Bourque's mother, Line Bourque, said she found out about her son's death around 9 p.m. Sunday when her eight-year-old granddaughter called her home in Larder Lake, Ont., a small community nearly 600 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.

The girl told her, "Daddy's gone to heaven," Bourque said.

Sources tell CBC that Michael Bourque was being investigated by both Ottawa police and Ontario Provincial Police for an alleged sexual assault of a child at the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata.

"That guy [accused of the sexual assault] was not our son, and believe me, he was not a perfect guy, but his heart was always perfect," Bourque's mother told CBC by phone Wednesday.

Thoughts with other victims

She described Bourque as a great father and a man who was loved by those in his home town. She said he had never been diagnosed with any sort of mental illness, but she believes he wasn't in a good frame of mind the day of the crash.

She said her thoughts are with the other victims involved in the crash. Bourque said her family is not planning a big funeral for her son out of respect for those people.

The province's police watchdog is investigating because Micheal Bourque's vehicle was involved in a police pursuit earlier Sunday afternoon.

Two people died in a head-on collision involving five vehicles on Highway 417 in the afternoon of Sunday, July 7, 2019. (Submitted)

In a media release issued Sunday, the Special Investigations Unit said OPP were conducting an investigation with Ottawa police "when they observed a vehicle of interest" heading east on the 417 just before 1 p.m.

Officers followed the vehicle, then stopped their pursuit due to safety concerns, OPP said in a separate media release.

"A short time later the vehicle was reported to be eastbound in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 and involved in multiple collisions," OPP said.