Crash damaged Listowel, Ont. business plans to reopen next week
When a tractor trailer crashed into the front doors of two downtown Listowel, Ont. businesses on Friday, Matthew and Tammy Cressey’s phones started to light up.
“I just saw debris, and carnage. I look over and there’s a transport truck in my restaurant,” says Matthew.
The owners of Diana Sweets Diner, which has been in Listowel’s downtown for over 100 years, say they expected the worst after a transport truck careened off Listowel’s Main Street, and into their front doors and a neighbouring storefront.
But early indications are their building is safe, and Diana Sweets may actually re-open Monday.
“The truck was holding the structure up, so the biggest fear was, when they pulled the truck out, everything was going to fall, and it didn’t. So, we’re kind of in the best-case scenario of a crappy situation,” says Tammy.
The crash itself has reignited a decades-long discussion about a truck bypass in Listowel, to direct transport trucks away from the downtown.
Todd Kasenberg, mayor of the Municipality of North Perth, says a Transportation Master Plan study is coming before North Perth council in the next few months and a commercial bypass will be discussed.
“This council is determined, at least, to hear about how a commercial bypass could be constructed, the appropriate pathways for it, and ultimately what the cost will be. And we’re fairly committed, from my interactions with my fellow council colleagues, to get this done,” says Kasenberg.
Police tape blocks the area after a transport truck crashed into a building on Main Street in Listowel, Ont. on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. (Scott Miller / CTV News)
The Cresseys remain hopeful they can reopen on Monday, and are thankful they were in COVID-19 lockdown at the time of the crash so there was no one in the restaurant when the transport abruptly stopped by.
“The most tears I’ve shed have been because of the kindness and support that we’ve been shown. This is why you live in a small town. This is why you fight for these diners to stay open through COVID,” says Tammy.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Woman with disabilities approved for medically assisted death relocated thanks to 'inspiring' support
A 31-year-old disabled Toronto woman who was conditionally approved for a medically assisted death after a fruitless bid for safe housing says her life has been 'changed' by an outpouring of support after telling her story.

Police inaction moves to centre of Uvalde shooting probe
The actions -- or more notably, the inaction -- of a school district police chief and other law enforcement officers moved swiftly to the centre of the investigation into this week's shocking school shooting in Uvalde, Texas,
Russia takes small cities, aims to widen east Ukraine battle
Russia asserted Saturday that its troops and separatist fighters had captured a key railway junction in eastern Ukraine, the second small city to fall to Moscow's forces this week as they fought to seize all of the country's contested Donbas region.
Truth tracker: Does the World Economic Forum influence governments like Canada's?
The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos was met with justifiable criticisms and unfounded conspiracy theories.
Calling social conservatives dinosaurs was 'wrong terminology', says Patrick Brown
Federal Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Brown says calling social conservatives 'dinosaurs' in a book he wrote about his time in Ontario politics was 'the wrong terminology.'
Fact check: NRA speakers distort gun and crime statistics
Speakers at the National Rifle Association annual meeting assailed a Chicago gun ban that doesn't exist, ignored security upgrades at the Texas school where children were slaughtered and roundly distorted national gun and crime statistics as they pushed back against any tightening of gun laws.
She smeared blood on herself and played dead: 11-year-old reveals chilling details of the massacre
An 11-year-old survivor of the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, feared the gunman would come back for her so she smeared herself in her friend's blood and played dead.
Jury's duty in Depp-Heard trial doesn't track public debate
A seven-person civil jury in Virginia will resume deliberations Tuesday in Johnny Depp's libel trial against Amber Heard. What the jury considers will be very different from the public debate that has engulfed the high-profile proceedings.
Remote parts of rural eastern Ontario could wait weeks for power restoration
A Hydro One spokesperson says some people living in remote parts of rural eastern Ontario could be waiting weeks to have power restored after last Saturday’s devastating and deadly storm.