Traffic was backlogged along the Queen Elizabeth Way in Mississauga for most of Friday evening after a serious multi-vehicle crash closed all eastbound lanes along the busy highway.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene near Hurontario Street shortly before afternoon rush hour after a crash brought traffic to a standstill.
Ontario Provincial Police said a car driven by a teenage boy crashed through a barrier and landed on the busy lanes of Toronto-bound traffic.
Photographs and first-hand accounts of the accident paint a grisly picture: a full-size black car smashed on all sides, with shattered glass and busted concrete scattered across the road.
OPP Sgt. Dave Woodford said the car busted through a sound barrier, smashing several concrete slabs in the process.
"I've never seen a car go through them like that," Woodford told CTV Toronto on Friday.
"It continued through, taking the cement right onto the highway."
Driver Ray Basso said he witnessed a black Ford smash through a retaining wall and onto the highway, causing a chain of collisions.
"All I saw was a large dust ball come through," Basso told CTV Toronto. "When it cleared you could see the car launching through the wall, over the metal barrier which acted like a ramp, and it landed on the QEW."
Officials with ORNGE, the province's medical transport team, said a teenage male was airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
At least three other people were injured in the collision; details about what lead to the crash were not immediately available.
The QEW's eastbound lanes reopened Cawthra Road to Dixie Road shortly before 7 p.m.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Scott Lightfoot
