Tunnel crash snarls traffic; sends 3 to hospital

A four vehicle crash near the East Main tunnel in Welland this morning sent three people to hospital.

One man’s ear was nearly severed when the SUV he was riding in flipped upside down. The woman in the vehicle suffered an eye injury. Her baby in the back seat was not hurt.

Mark McPherson’s pickup was rammed from behind. He’s a retired volunteer firefighter and raced over to help the people in the SUV. “When they were all out I ran back to my truck and I got my first aid kit and got out two packs of sterile gauze and gave him one for his ear to put on and the other for the gash in his head.

“His ear was hanging down pretty good, I expect he will lose it but they may be able to put it back on, I don’t know.”

“Fortunately the baby seemed to be in very good shape. It was strapped in well in the seat, hanging upside down crying his eyes out but it didn’t look like it was injured at all, so that was probably a miracle there in itself.”

Traffic at East Main and Highway 140 was snarled for a few hours this morning until police completed their investigation and crews cleaned up the mess.

Editor’s Note: An earlier reference to the two adults in the car being married has been removed.