Skip to main content

Woman and child dead after crash on Highway 1 in Chilliwack

Share

A woman and child were killed in a multi-vehicle crash in Highway 1 in Chilliwack on Tuesday, according to authorities, who say a second child from the same family was also seriously injured.

First responders were called to Highway 1 near the Yale Road exit around 2:40 p.m. where they found a crash that involved a total of six vehicles carrying 10 people.

"Sadly, a local woman and child were declared deceased at the scene. A second child, from the same vehicle, was transported to hospital with serious injuries, but is expected to survive," the B.C. Highway Patrol said in a media release.

Mounties did not provide the ages of the woman or the children but did confirm to CTV News that the three people in the car were members of the same family.

An investigation into the crash caused a lengthy closure of Highway 1 through Chilliwack and so far police say impairment is not suspected to have been a factor.

"Initial information suggests that one or more vehicles stopped abruptly due to an obstruction in the roadway. At least one vehicle failed to stop in time and caused a chain reaction of collisions," the statement from the RCMP says.

On Tuesday, paramedics told CTV News one patient was transported from the scene in critical condition and four were taken to hospital in stable condition.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

A man who has brain damage has a murder conviction reversed after a 34-year fight

A man who has brain damage and was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a shopkeeper in London had his decades-old conviction quashed Wednesday by an appeals court troubled by the possibility police elicited a false confession from a mentally vulnerable man. Oliver Campbell, who suffered cognitive impairment as a baby and struggles with his concentration and memory, was 21 when he was jailed in 1991 after being convicted based partly on admissions his lawyer said were coerced. “The fight for justice is finally over after nearly 34 years," Campbell said. “I can start my life an innocent man.” Campbell, now in his 50s, was convicted of the robbery and murder of Baldev Hoondle, who was shot in the head in his shop in the Hackney area of east London in July 1990. He had a previous appeal rejected in 1994 and was released from prison in 2002 on conditions that could have returned him to prison if he got into trouble. Defense lawyer Michael Birnbaum said police lied to Campbell and “badgered and bullied” him into giving a false confession by admitting he pulled the trigger in an accident. He was interviewed more than a dozen times, including sessions without either a lawyer or other adult present. His learning disability put him “out of his depth” and he was "simply unable to do justice to himself,” Birnbaum said. He said the admissions were nonsense riddled with inconsistencies that contradicted facts in the case. At trial, he testified that he was not involved in the robbery and had been somewhere else though he couldn't remember where. A co-defendant, Eric Samuels, who has since died, pleaded guilty to the robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison. At the time, he told his lawyer Campbell was not the gunman and later told others Campbell wasn’t with him during the robbery. Lawyers continued to advocate for Campbell that he wasn't the killer and his case was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission which investigates potential injustices. The three judges on the Court of Appeal rejected most of Birnbaum's grounds for appeal but said they were troubled by the conviction in light of a new understanding of the reliability of admissions from someone with a mental disability. The panel quashed the conviction as 'unsafe,' and refused to order a retrial.

Stay Connected