1 dead and 4 sent to hospital after rollover crash that shut down Coquihalla Highway on Saturday
At least one person has died after a rollover crash that shut down the southbound lanes of the Coquihalla Highway for much of the day Saturday.
BC RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jesse O'Donaghey said in a statement that the BC Highway Patrol is investigating the Highway 5 crash that happened south of the Portia Brake Check, and that the BC Coroners Service attended the scene.
Five people were in the vehicle, say RCMP, one of whom was pronounced dead at the scene.
“First responders arrived on scene to find a heavily damaged grey Mazda CX-9 on its side,” said O’Donaghey.
“Two adults and two children sustained varying degrees of injuries, all serious and many considered to be potentially life threatening in nature. While sadly a fifth occupant of the vehicle, a woman in her 70s, was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
BC Emergency Health Services and RCMP say the two adults, a man and a woman, were airlifted to hospital in critical condition.
“At last update, both the man and woman were in emergency surgery,” said O’Donaghey in his statement late Saturday night.
The ambulance service dispatched two air ambulances and four ground ambulances to the scene.
RCMP say that one of the kids was transported by BC Air Ambulance to BC Children’s Hospital in critical condition, and that the other was taken to another Lower Mainland hospital with serious bodily injuries, believed to be non-life threatening.
RCMP say that first responders attended the scene around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, and that collision reconstruction experts and the coroners are working to understand what led to the elderly woman’s death.
“In order to protect the privacy and identity of the deceased and all those injured in this tragic crash, no further information will be released by police,” O’Donaghey said.
DriveBC first tweeted reports of the incident just after 9:30 a.m., and soon confirmed that a crash had closed Highway 5's southbound lanes for more than 106 kilometres.
The closure was in effect from one kilometre south of Merritt to one kilometre north of Hope, according to DriveBC, which advised motorists to take Highway 5A to Highway 3 as a detour.
While the Coquihalla's northbound lanes remained open, DriveBC said major delays were expected in both directions.
Around 1:30 p.m., the agency tweeted that southbound traffic was "slowly being flushed," a phrase it later clarified meant that vehicles were being allowed to pass the crash scene and continue toward Hope.
The highway reopened around 3:30 p.m., according to DriveBC.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.