Denbigh – A car carrier loaded with brand new 2023 Dodge pick-up trucks and two SUVs left Highway 41 Friday morning and collided with a rock cut, damaging several vehicles on the top of the carrier.

The driver, who was uninjured, was exiting the cab as Denbigh resident Blake Leland was approaching to see if he was injured and required assistance.

Mr. Leland and his wife, Ashley Briscoe, have lived on Highway 41 in Denbigh the past five years and while they have seen other accidents on the busy highway, this one was up close and personal as the car carrier started to veer off the road as it neared their property, damaging their lawn and laneway, before coming to rest along a rock cut.

“It was kind of on my property actually,” Ms. Briscoe told The Leader Tuesday. “We heard it and then we came running outside.

“There was a lot of, at first we thought it was smoke, but it was actually dust from him kicking up so much dirt,” she added. ‘We didn’t know if the truck was on fire or what, but it ended up settling.”

Mr. Leland ran out of their home to see if the driver was okay, but he had already exited the truck.

“The truck hit our ditch and then took out some of the driveway. It’s all cracked and everything.”

She said the carrier was northbound on Highway 41, headed for the dealership in Renfrew.

Ms. Briscoe said the driver of the rig told them the vehicle had been in for service recently and he found that it was really pulling towards the right on most of his trip.

“He felt it pulling to the right for quite some time while he was driving,” she shared. “And then he just couldn’t control it because he was pulling so much weight.”

She said the EMS and Denbigh Fire Department were the first responders on scene, and the OPP arrived later.

“The driver was injured and actually was sitting on my deck,” she said.

The driver, who had told them he was from Oshawa, had just started with the company.

“We’ve lived there coming up to five years and that was the worst one we’ve seen,” Ms. Briscoe remarked, in terms of damage.

She said they live diagonally across from the Bridge Street turn onto Highway 41.

Ms. Briscoe said two of the pick-up trucks on the top level of the carrier were “goners”.

“A white truck went through the windshield of a red truck because it spilled off the tracks on the hauler.”

She said cranes were dispatched to the scene Saturday morning to lift the top vehicle off the carrier before it could be pulled from the ditch. All in all, it took about five hours before the transport was removed.

Traffic was reduced to one lane during the removal of the carrier.

Ms. Briscoe said their three young children were quite excited to watch the procedure taking place right in front of their eyes.