SAINT-JEAN-DE-MATHA, QUE. -- It was a horror scene on the road Saturday morning when a motorist was trapped in his burning vehicle after an accident in Saint-Jean-de-Matha, in the Lanaudiere region, about an hour-and-a-half north of Montreal.

The head-on collision between the man's car and a van occurred a little before 6 a.m. on Highway 131, also called Route Louis-Cyr.

"Following the collision, the two cars caught fire and the driver of the car remained incarcerated inside," said Surete du Quebec (SQ) spokesperson Catherine Bernard. Bernard could not confirm whether the man had died of his injuries or not.

"At the moment, the injuries are pretty serious for the driver of the car," she said.

As for the driver of the van, a man in his fifties, he was not injured.

Investigators remain on the scene to determine the circumstances leading to the crash.

The section of Route Louis-Cyr where the collision occurred is closed to traffic while the SQ is investigating.

-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2020.