Image Credit: B.C. Ambulance via Flickr
Republished May 27, 2016 - 2:48 PM
Original Publication Date May 27, 2016 - 2:10 PM
KAMLOOPS - Emergency crews are responding to multiple vehicle crashes on the Coquihalla Highway southwest of Kamloops this afternoon and nasty weather may be a factor.
Eight people, including one pregnant woman, have been sent to Royal Inland Hospital after multiple crashes near the Inks Lake brake check on Highway 5 between Kamloops and Merritt around 1 p.m., May 27, Staff Sgt. Doug Aird with the Kamloops Rural RCMP says. He notes the pregnant woman is in stable condition but she is still concerned.
Aird says four vehicles were involved in what appears to be separate incidents at the same location around the same time. A Lincoln SUV sheered off a pole at the brake check, a white Dodge truck rolled once and came to a rest wheels down, a red truck went off the road after narrowly missing the Dodge and a Chevrolet Avalanche is laying on it's roof nearby.
A man was hit by the red truck while helping the driver of the Dodge, Aird says, but left the scene under his on power and may have gone to the hospital.
Aird says the series of crashes were caused by a freak hail storm which had melted by the time he arrived on scene
B.C. Emergency Health Services spokesperson Preet Grewal says at least five ambulances were called to the scene.
No word yet from Drive B.C. on the status of the route, but it would be safe to assume there are slow downs for lane closures.
— This story was updated at 2:43 p.m., Friday, May 27, 2016, with new information from the B.C. Emergency Health Services and again at 3:11 p.m. with information from the RCMP.
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