A Mercedes hurtled down Laval streets on Friday morning before it blew a stop sign and struck a truck, triggering a fiery inferno and killing the speeding driver.

Police, already alerted to the erratic motorist by several 911 calls, were unable to track him down before he veered onto Highway 25 from Pie-IX and collided with the tractor-trailer.

The motorist, who is in his 40s, died on impact.

The truck driver, whose cab had a large black mark and severe damage from the force of the collision, was treated for shock.

Accident reconstruction experts were on the scene Friday morning and traffic was backed up for several hours on the 25 north at St. Martin.

Fatal south-shore collision

A 40-year-old man from St. Constant, on the south shore, died in a single-vehicle accident in nearby Candiac.

It happened around 2 a.m. Friday when the man lost control of his car, hit the divider and struck a guardrail on Highway 30.

It took rescuers 90 minutes to free him.

He was taken to Anna Laberge hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Head-on fatal

A 55-year old man was killed Thursday afternoon in a head-on collision with a truck towards the U.S. border.

It happened around 3 p.m. near St-Ignace-de-Stanbridge, about 100 kilometres southeast of Montreal.

The driver hit the truck head-on on Route 235, and both vehicles ended up in a ditch.

Firefighters used the jaws of life to extract the driver, but he did not survive.

Police believe the driver had become distracted or possibly had a health problem.

Fewer Fatalities: SAAQ

Despite the deaths, new statistics show that the number of fatalities on Quebec roads has been dropping over the past two years.

Quebec's automobile insurance board says 220 people died on the province's roads during the fist six months of this year, which is 9.5 per cent less than in 2008 and nearly 25 per cent less than 2007.