TORONTO — A 78-year-old woman is dead and her passenger was injured after their disabled SUV was struck by a tractor-trailer on the westbound Highway 403 in Oakville Thursday night.Ontario Provincial Police say emergency crews were called to the scene near Dundas Street East around 9:30 p.m. after reports of a vehicle broken down in a live lane of traffic. Before officers could arrive, the SUV was hit by an approaching tractor-trailer.Sgt. Kerry Schmidt of the OPP Highway Safety Division said the 78-year-old female driver of the SUV was pronounced dead at the scene. Her 67-year-old female passenger was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The tractor-trailer driver was not injured.Westbound lanes of Hwy. 403 at Dundas St. East were closed for several hours while emergency crews worked at the scene. The highway reopened sometime after 4 a.m. Friday.The crash comes amid a significant uptick in fatal collisions across the Greater Toronto Area so far in 2026. Toronto police data show a 28% increase in traffic fatalities in the city compared with the same period last year, while OPP figures indicate fatal crashes under their jurisdiction are up 22%.Large commercial trucks represent only about 3% of vehicles on Ontario roads but have been involved in roughly 12% of fatal collisions in recent years, according to Ministry of Transportation data cited in the Auditor General’s 2026 report.The investigation remains ongoing.
