Local police say a radioactive instrument used to measure the thickness of compacted material such as soil and concrete was flung from one of two vehicles in an accident north of Ottawa-Gatineau and crashed into a hair salon that was operating at the time. had been closed.

According to MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais police, the two-vehicle accident occurred at the corner of routes du Carrefour and Principale in Val-des-Monts, Que., around 11 a.m.

A security perimeter was set up and the intersection was closed, police said. The road has now been reopened.

The instrument was a nuclear densometer and its condition was still being assessed Thursday afternoon.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has a website about portable meters like densometers, which contains information on what to do in the event of accidents involving them. It says a perimeter of at least two meters must be set around any damaged meter, among other safety protocols.

Local firefighters, specialist Ottawa firefighters and personnel from the Canadian Transport Emergency Center, which looks after dangerous goods, were brought in to manage Thursday’s incident, as was the engineering firm responsible for the densometer.

One person was slightly injured in the accident.