Image Credit: Shutterstock
November 07, 2015 - 9:20 AM
MERRITT – Three people in a U-Haul van were killed last night on the Highway 97C when it slammed into the back of a semi transporting crushed cars.
The crash happened at about 8:45 p.m., Nov. 6, about six kilometres east of Merritt, according to a media release from RCMP Central Interior Traffic Services.
“The impact of the collision was so severe one female and two male occupants of the U-Haul were deceased at the scene,” RCMP Sgt. Mike Pears says in the release. “The driver and passenger in the commercial vehicle were not injured.”
The semi was travelling down Hamilton Hill westbound in the right hand slow lane about one km west of the brake check when the van crashed into the rear.
Pears says investigators don’t know why.
“Visibility was good at the time. The road was bare and dry,” he says. “The trailer lights of the commercial vehicle were working and on at the time of the collision.”
Both the RCMP and the B.C. Coroners Service continue to investigate. Police are working to identify the people killed in the crash so they can contact their families.
Witnesses are being asked to call the Central Interior Traffic Services unit in Merritt at 250-378-4262.
In a separate incident, while emergency responders and traffic control people were on the scene of the crash last night, the driver of a pickup truck “drew attention to himself” and was arrested for drunk driving, Pears says. The driver was issued a 90-day immediate roadside prohibition and his truck was impounded.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015