One person is dead and four injured after two major accidents interrupted traffic and closed Highway 5 south of Merritt on Thursday morning.
The first accident which was reported to RCMP at 8:30 a.m. involved three vehicles on Larson Hill. According to Merritt RCMP Const. Tracy Dunsmore, the accident occurred when a suburban with Alberta plates clipped the rear of a chip truck travelling southbound on the highway.
“The suburban lost control and while spinning in traffic was hit by a truck with a camper also southbound on the highway,” said Dunsmore.
The occupants of the chip truck and the camper were fine but the three occupants of the Alberta suburban, which had major damage, all sustained injuries.
Two of the occupants were taken to hospital by ambulance, said Dunsmore – the male driver with minor injuries and a female passenger with serious non-lifethreatening injuries. A third female passenger sustained serious life-threatening injuries and was taken to the Royal Columbian Hospital by air ambulance.
RCMP received a second call at 9:05 a.m. reporting a single vehicle accident at the intersection of Highway 5 and Highway 97C. Dunsmore reported that a blue pickup travelling northbound on Highway 5 struck a lamppost and lost control in the northbound lane.
“The vehicle skid across the highway into the median and rolled through the ditch landing upright in the southbound lane,” said Dunsmore. “Both male occupants of the pickup were thrown from the vehicle.”
Witnesses began CPR on the driver who was thrown into the ditch and first aid on he passenger who was thrown onto the roadway. The passenger who was conscious with unknown injuries was taken to the hospital by ambulance, said Dunsmore. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.
The names of the victims of the accidents have not been released by RCMP at this time and both incidents are under investigation said Dunsmore.
