In response to a spate of crashes along Highway 401 in the Chatham area, the local tourism department says its detour maps can help motorists avoid the highway.

Chatham-Kent Tourism says the free detour maps help drivers navigate away from all of the construction.

“There are long stretches along the busy highway where vehicles are forced to drive in single lane traffic between Essex Road 42 and Kent Bridge Road,” the tourism department says in a release.

“It’s both sad and frustrating to see crashes like these,” says Supervisor of Tourism Development, Shannon Paiva.

“We still have another four months of this construction, so we encourage people to use our CKDetourist maps, and take an alternate route, like Highway 2.”

Paper maps are also available at Ontario Tourist Information Centres throughout the regions of London, Sarnia, Windsor and Chatham-Kent.

From Friday to Sunday, Highway 401 was closed for several hours on three separate occasions in Chatham-Kent due to separate multi-vehicle crashes, including a fatal collision on Sunday that claimed the life of a 42-year-old mother from Amherstburg and her 14-year-old son.