TORONTO, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Canadian police cited driver error and an inadequate driver's license as reasons behind a deadly two-truck crash that killed 11 people this week in Ontario.
At a news conference Wednesday, Ontario Provincial Police said the driver of a 15-seat extended van carrying migrant Peruvian agricultural workers home had only a passenger car license and didn't stop at a stop sign Monday afternoon.
A flatbed tractor trailer hit the van at the crossroads of the hamlet of Hampstead. Both trucks' drivers were killed along with nine workers in the van, CTV News said.
Two of the survivors are in critical condition and the third is in fair condition, the report said.
"This crash did not have to happen. These lives did not need to be lost," OPP Chief Superintendent John Cain told reporters.
The speed limit in both directions is 50 mph. The force of the southbound semi hitting the westbound van threw the van 50 yards away into the side of a house, although no one inside was injured.
Ontario law requires a higher grade license for ambulance drivers and any vehicle that carries more than 11 people, such as small school buses.
Separately, a provincial spokesman said medical costs for the injured will be paid by the government, as well as the costs of the repatriation of bodies, funeral and burial expenses, the Toronto Star said.
