Truck collides with overpass in Richmond, closes Highway 99 south

The southbound lanes of Highway 99 in Richmond were closed Wednesday afternoon after a truck collided with the Cambie Road overpass.

Images from the scene show the vehicle's trailer crumpled from the apparent impact with the underside of the bridge. Another vehicle, a pickup truck, appears to have been struck by the broken trailer and heavily damaged.

Richmond RCMP said in a news release that both the southbound lanes of the highway and Cambie Road had been closed due to the collision.

"Both roads will be closed for an unknown amount of time as engineers assess the damage to the overpass," police said in the statement, adding that southbound travellers should take the No. 4 Road or Shell Road exit off-ramps to detour around the closure.

“It felt like an explosion,” said Meghan Hufty, who was working at a hotel across the street from the overpass at the time of the crash.

 “It felt like maybe there (was) a building or something that fell. It shook the hotel and I yelled at my boss like, 'What was that?' It scared me. It felt like a small earthquake,” Hufty said.

Mounties did not say anything about injuries resulting from the collision, and BC Emergency Health Services initially told CTV News it had not received any calls for ambulance service as a result of the crash.

However, during the response, a worker on scene was injured.

Hufty told CTV News she saw a cable from one of the tow trucks snap off, striking a man.

“He was just standing there and all of a sudden his hard hat fell off of his head,” Hufty said.

WorkSafeBC confirmed it was notified of an incident at the scene, and EHS said one person was taken to hospital with undisclosed injuries.

Northbound traffic on Highway 99 was not affected by the crash, police said.

DriveBC said in an update at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday the road was open again, but the sidewalk on the Cambie Road overpass would be closed indefinitely.