Multiple car crashes were the result of heavy rain and hail that pounded the Coquihalla Highway on Sunday (July 26).

Just before 11 a.m. that day at the Inks Lake brake check south of Kamloops, two northbound vehicles were involved in a minor collision during an intense rainstorm that caused road conditions to deteriorate quickly.

As a result of the crash, trailing vehicles had to brake rapidly and three left the road down a steep embankment, Kamloops RCMP Const. Jason Epp told the Herald.

“One of the vehicles rolled several times during its decent,” Epp said.

An air ambulance and paramedics responded to the scene.

Six people were taken to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops with non-life threatening injuries.

Epp said the use of seatbelts is believed to have helped prevent more serious injuries.

“Any time you’re travelling through the high mountain areas anticipate and expect sudden weather changes [and] adjust your speeds appropriately,” Epp said.

Shortly after this incident, at about 12:30 p.m., vehicles travelling northbound on the Coquihalla Highway in the Surrey Lake Summit area were also affected by the intense rain.

“They were just coming along and all of a sudden the weather conditions changed suddenly, as they do on the Coquihalla, and people that were driving along on nice, dry, clear roads approached a wall of water and flurries,” Logan Lake Const. Daniel Schenkeveld said.

Five drivers lost control of their vehicles and went off the road in the same area, Schenkeveld said.

Two kilometres north of this incident a vehicle went through the median ditch and rolled upside down, landing in the southbound lane, Schenkeveld said.

He said multiple people were transferred to hospital with what appeared to be mostly minor injuries.

Schenkeveld said drivers lost control of their vehicles on their own or while trying to avoid other vehicles.

He advised that if drivers see poor weather forming ahead of them, they need to slow down before reaching it.

“It’s kind of late when you lock your breaks up in the slush. It’s game over,” Schenkeveld said.

Later that day at about 4:40 p.m., there was a four-vehicle pile-up in the Surrey Summit area.

RCMP Cpl. Doug Hardy said that in this incident, the vehicles were travelling southbound, and the road conditions were slushy from the intense rain storm.

One car lost control causing three others behind it to bump into each other.

Two of six occupants in the four vehicles sustained minor, non-life threatening injuries, Hardy said.

This type of incident is preventable, and people need to slow down and drive according to conditions, he told the Herald.

Drive BC issued a travel advisory that day at about 5 p.m. due to extremely slippery sections between Merritt and Kamloops.

This advisory is no longer active.

Hardy said that in bad weather, people should drive at whatever speed will allow them to maintain control of their vehicle. If the rain inhibits drivers from seeing what is ahead of them, they should find a place to pull over and stop.

“Just remember that posted speed limit is based on optimal driving conditions,” said Epp.