Ottawa, Ontario — November 10, 2015 — Police have charged a 22-year-old tow truck driver after a weekend collision left a local man dead and his 13-year-old daughter in serious condition. The Ottawa Citizen reports Discount Towing operator Mohamed Hassan Haj-Saleh faces two counts of dangerous driving—causing death and bodily harm—in connection with the Nov. 8 crash. Police say Haj-Saleh was headed eastbound on Meadowlands when his truck collided with a merging Acura sedan near Viewmount Drive at around 2 p.m. Sunday. The accident killed 55-year-old Giai Ly and seriously injured the vehicle’s passenger, his daughter. The teen sustained trauma to her head, abdomen, pelvis and lower leg, and was transported to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. “We hope she will be OK. It’s too early to tell,” an unnamed source told the Citizen Monday. Haj-Saleh was arrested at the scene and holds no prior convictions. Const. Chuck Benoit says police are looking into whether the tow operator had been responding to a call at the time. “It’s still an ongoing investigation. There are a few details that the investigators are looking into but they were able to charge him with these two counts because they had him in custody,” Benoit said in the report. The area’s posted speed limit is is 40 km/hour, and conditions remained clear at the time of the crash, according to CBC News. Haj-Saleh was expected to appear in court on Nov. 9. Ottawa police are asking anyone with information pertaining to the incident to call the collision investigation unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 2481.
