The Bracebridge Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has charged one driver after receiving reports of a wrong-way driver on Highway 11.
On Sunday, March 22, 2026, at 2:25 a.m., Bracebridge OPP officers responded to multiple 9-1-1 calls about a pickup truck travelling north in the southbound lanes of Highway 11 in Bracebridge. The vehicle travelled some distance before turning around and travelling south. Officers were able to stop the vehicle and subsequently arrested and charged 47-year-old Christopher DARDARIAN of Etobicoke, ON with the following:
- Impaired operation
- Over 80
- Dangerous operation
- Drive motor vehicle with cannabis readily available
- Drive motor vehicle in contravention of conditions (HTA)
He will appear in the Ontario Court of Justice in Bracebridge on May 5, 2026 to answer to his charges.
If you suspect someone is driving a vehicle of any kind while impaired, please call 9-1-1. Police will make every effort to locate the involved vehicle and conduct an investigation, many times, these investigations result in charges and removing impaired drivers from Muskoka roads.
For more information on impaired driving, please visit https://www.ontario.ca/page/impaired-driving.
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Brian Tapley offers many valid points on how a driver could end up travelling in the wrong direction on Hwy 11. But once a vehicle ends up on the highway in the wrong direction, how many vehicles shooting past at a combined speed of at least 200 km/h does it take before a driver gets the idea to pull over and wait for a chance to safely execute a U-turn? I remember (in around 2004) reading about a driver travelling several kilometres or more in the wrong direction on Hwy 11 before killing four or five adults in a horrific collision, in ideal weather conditions. I would rather not see that repeated in our local news.
In no way am I defending this person’s actions but I’d like to make the point that the way we build our intersections in some cases is almost a near perfect “invitation” to end up going the wrong way on a 4 lane highway.
The traditional “clover leaf” design or some variant of it is pretty inherently safe but we do not always see this design.
In many cases, like for example Aspdin Rd. at the south end of Huntsville, the off ramp south bound and the On ramp south bound are right side by side. I know, there is a divider, there are signs and so on but all you need to do to be going the wrong way is mistake these two (identical looking) ramps when you make your turn. If you turn 20 feet too soon, presto, your on your way to the wrong way and a probably lethal accident.
You don’t have to be drunk to make this mistake. Low traffic levels so there is no obvious flow, bad visibility, darkness, snow covering lane markings or possibly, just one sign knocked down by weather and your in the wrong place.
Also, even when one might realize what their mistake is, there is no easy way out of your situation. You can’t really “do a three point turn” on the ramp. It is near impossible to back all the way up the ramp and if you continue to the highway your in a high speed location with nowhere to go except maybe do a near U turn to get yourself at least going in the right direction.
I call this poor design. The two ramps should be better differentiated where they meet the cross road or better yet, don’t put them together at all, put them on opposite sides of the cross road the way the old clover leafs were. In my Aspdin road example there is a big hill that makes it difficult to put the south bound on ramp on the south side of Aspdin but in this case it is also complicated by the old Airport road or whatever they call it now that also arrives from the north side so there are a whole bunch of roads all close together. Three sort of OK and one lethal.
You have to remember that not all drivers are local, and the combination of unfamiliarity, bad weather, and other distractions makes it too easy in my opinion to make the wrong choice and the result of this choice being wrong is very serious to lethal. I think maybe somehow these type of intersections could be improved.
Something for MTO to think about maybe.