Emergency officials say it is amazing that three people survived a horrific crash that killed 11 people northeast of Stratford on Monday.
The truck driver killed the crash has been identified as Christopher Fulton of London. OPP continue to work to identify the other 10 victims.
The people killed in the passenger van are all believed to be South American migrant workers from Peru and/or Nicaragua who had been working at a nearby chicken farm vaccinating poultry.
Linda Rockwood, director of Perth County EMS, says five of the passengers were already dead when paramedics arrived and the others died on scene.
Three others who were in the van at the time of the crash remain in hospital in serious condition, but no other details about their condition are being released.
Officials say it's a miracle that anyone survived, given the horrific nature of the crash.
"From the reports I got back from my staff I believe yes, it was a miracle," Rockwood says.
OPP Const. Kees Wijnands says the situation has been "hard on the officers, on the firefighters and on the EMS workers. We deal with some tragic incidences, but never on a scale like this."
The crash happened shortly before 5 p.m. on Monday, when a southbound flatbed truck broadsided the westbound 15-passenger van at Perth Road 107 and Line 47 in Hampstead.
The impact pushed the van into a nearby house and flipped the truck onto its side.
Witnesses on scene say they heard the crash and tried to help the injured, but there was a language barrier, with the victims believed to be speaking Spanish.
The road was closed until around 4 a.m. on Tuesday as OPP officers continued their investigation.
Driving conditions were clear at the time of the collision, the speed limit in the area is 80 kilometres an hour and there are stop signs for east and westbound traffic at the intersection.
However, OPP say it's not clear whether the van obeyed the stop sign and they are not ruling out ay possible crash causes yet.
The truck was operated by Brampton-based Speedy Transport Group, where the flag was flying at half-mast Tuesday.
CEO Jared Martin released a statement saying "Our thoughts and prayers are with our driver's family and the families of the other victims involved in this horrible tragedy."
At a press conference Tuesday morning, emergency officials announced that a bank account is being set up to help the families of the victims of the crash.
The crash is believed to be the deadliest in Ontario since 1999.
Victims remembered by community
Many of the men killed in the collision lived in Kitchener, where they have left behind family and friends full of grief.
Roberto Balceda and Melissa West-Balceda say the men were all members of the same extended family, sending money home to loved ones in Peru.
"I'll miss them, I'll miss them dearly," West-Balceda says.
Ten of the men lived in the same quiet apartment building in south Kitchener, five of those in the van having arrived in Canada just last week.
Balceda works for the same company, doing the same job, and would have been in that van had he not been scheduled to work a night shift.
"I know that van, I know the driver, I sit in the back when he's driving," he says.
Leti Alfaro saw the men on Saturday, when they made their weekly stop at her store for lunch. She says "They're nice, quiet. They don't make a lot of noise, just nice people…we're still in shock."
Meanwhile in London, 38-year-old Fulton, who was driving the truck, is also being remembered.
Neighbour Ray Mclean says "Chris is going to be missed...I had watched the news and I said to my wife, I hope it's not what I'm thinking. But it was."
A police press conference is scheduled for Wednesday, when more details on the victims are expected to be released.
