Large truck crashes into Logan Avenue shop; two taken to hospital

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/05/2025 (521 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man narrowly avoided being struck by a large truck that came crashing into his business Monday afternoon, obliterating the front office and reception area where he had been standing moments earlier.

The truck was travelling southbound on McPhillips Street around 1 p.m., when the driver lost control and hit the front of Mid-West Sheet Metal at 1100 Logan Ave., said Ken Olenick, who operates the family business with his two brothers.

His brother was inside the front office immediately before the collision, but saw the truck coming thanks to an exterior surveillance camera, Olenick said.

“He actually saw it on the video monitor, the vehicle coming toward him, so he ran a little bit,” Olenick said, speaking from inside the back of the metal manufacturing shop about 90 minutes after the crash.

Olenick said his other brother had left the office moments before the crash.

“My other brother, he was just standing right there, he was just walking back here then ‘Boom’ he turned around and saw all the debris flying… He said he might have just caught a little debris from it.”

The large truck caused significant damage to the front of the building. Shattered glass, planks of wood and other debris littered the back of the shop and rendered the office inaccessible. Daylight streamed in through a gaping hole in the wall and glinted off the grille of the truck, which was trapped inside.

The truck was owned by Industrial Container Service. A staff member at the business declined to comment.

Olenick wasn’t at the shop when the collision took place, but arrived minutes later.

He described how his “heart was racing” as he viewed the destruction. The brother in the front office was “the coolest of us all” he said, laughing.

Olenick thinks the driver may have suffered a medical event because there were no skid marks on the pavement or other evidence that he had hit the brakes before the collision.

In an update Monday evening, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said two individuals were transported to hospital: one in critical condition, the other in unstable condition.

A large number of police vehicles were on scene throughout the afternoon. Traffic on Logan Avenue was diverted, with all eastbound lanes closed. Two police vehicles were stationed near the intersection of Logan and Weston Street, while another blocked the eastbound lanes near the intersection of Logan and Yeomans Street.

About six more police vehicles controlled traffic at McPhillips and Logan, and a large swath of the area was cordoned off with police tape. One southbound lane on McPhillips was closed, where a large tow truck idled.

Traffic signals in all directions at the intersection were out. Some officers directed motorists, while others walked around the scene and recorded details in their notebooks. At one point, an officer climbed in to the passenger side of the crashed truck to peer inside.

At least two other vehicles were damaged in the crash. A red sedan jumped the curb and came to a rest on the sidewalk in front of Mid-West after smashing into a light standard.

A second silver sedan was behind police tape in the left, eastbound turn lane on Logan Avenue. It’s front passenger tire was flattened and the front end crumpled.

It appeared the truck was travelling southbound on McPhillips Street when it veered off the road and onto a median that has a bus stop at the Logan Avenue intersection.

A sign nearby was snapped in half and on the pavement, while a garbage and recycling bin was heavily dented and had pushed several feet forward. The bus shelter was undamaged.

A traffic light on the west side of Logan had been ripped from the ground and was missing.

Emergency services were stretched thin throughout the afternoon as staff responded to a massive fire in the north Transcona area.

Staff at a nearby Co-op gas station refused to comment on the crash, saying they’d been told not to say anything.

Olenick planned to wait at the shop until police cleared the scene and the truck was removed. He said there were plans to board up the damaged wall until it could be repaired. His brothers had already left.

The shop will likely remain closed temporarily, he said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca