A toddler has been airlifted to a trauma centre after a single-vehicle crash that also injured the child’s mother on Thursday afternoon led to the closure of the eastbound lanes of Hwy. 401 in Pickering.

The OPP’s Highway Safety Division advised motorists to keep away from the area in a post on social media as all eastbound lanes of the 401 were shut down at Brock Rd. late in the afternoon. By about 5 p.m., officers had reopened two lanes.

“We have a full closure in place and that will remain in place for several hours, I suspect, as we do our investigation here on the highway, on the scene and clear the vehicles from the road,” Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said in a video update released just after 4 p.m.

Collision/Road Closure: EB #Hwy401/Brock Rd Pickering.
Single vehicle collision, two occupants from the vehicle were taken to hospital. The driver was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries and the one-year-old child was airlifted to a trauma center. Road closures are… pic.twitter.com/wn86C5CQUb

— OPP Highway Safety Division (@OPP_HSD) August 13, 2026

Child’s mother also injured

Schmidt said the crash happened an hour earlier – around 3 p.m. – approaching Brock and involved a single vehicle in the express lanes. He said the driver of the vehicle – the child’s mother – was hospitalized with minor injuries, and police were waiting for an update on the condition of the injured one-year-old.

Police said in an update later that the child was in stable condition.

The crash happened hours before Hwy. 400 northbound was closed south of the Holland Marsh for a three-vehicle crash and two days after another child and an adult were critically injured in a Tuesday evening crash on Hwy. 403 in Mississauga near Square One Shopping Centre.

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In that crash, the injured parties – a 12-year-old boy and a 43-year-old man from the United States – were on the side of the highway near Mavis Rd. at about 5 p.m. as drivers exchanged information from a previous two-vehicle crash.

A third vehicle then plowed into one of the pulled-over vehicles and pushed it into the man and the boy, while a third person suffered minor injuries.

It was unclear if their conditions had improved as of Thursday afternoon.

Police said the driver of the third vehicle was not injured.

The crash led to the closure of the westbound 403 for several hours with the OPP’s Mississauga Detachment investigating the incident.

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