Wild winter weather that slammed into the Oceanside area this week resulted in such highway mayhem that police were forced to respond only to the worst of the crashes.
Oceanside RCMP Corporal Richard van de Pol said the biggest of these happened Wednesday on Highway 19 between the Esso station and PetroCan.
“It appears a southbound vehicle slowed or stopped along the roadway and another came up behind and wasn’t able to stop due to the slushy conditions,” he said. “There was a chain reaction involving 10 vehicles.”
Nobody was seriously injured in the pileup, although one person suffered minor injuries.
The highway was closed for about an hour and a half however as police and highways crews worked to get the vehicles off the road.
Elsewhere, the situation wasn’t much better.
“The roads were terrible,” van de Pol said. “There were so many vehicles in the ditch that we weren’t really responding unless there was a need for a police presence,” he said. “People were being told to contact ICBC if there was minor damage.”
One crash they did respond to was at the intersection of Church Road and Highway 4A, in which the driver of a Volkswagen Jetta turned left in front of a westbound Suburban.
“The driver of the Suburban was well under the posted speed limit and was able to slow his vehicle down substantially before impact,” van de Pol said. “No serious injuries were sustained, but both vehicles had to be towed from the scene because of extensive damage.”
The driver of the Jetta was charged under the Motor Vehicle Act with failing to yield, although road conditions were also seen as a factor.
Road conditions didn’t improve over the day and efforts to clear them ran into trouble in Qualicum Beach when, just before 7 p.m. an Emcon snow plow slammed into a Toyota pickup truck.
The pickup had been heading west on Highway 4 when the driver of the eastbound plow lost control and plowed into it.
“The driver of the snow plow tried to stop, but couldn’t,” van de Pol said. “Road conditions were very icy, with compact snow, which was a contributing factor.”
He noted conditions had only improved somewhat Thursday morning, with several reports coming in about vehicles in the ditch.
Van de Pol said the road conditions alone weren’t responsible for the crashfest.
“People are driving too fast,” he said. “Yesterday, after the highway re-opened, there was only one lane that was really clear, but there were people still trying to pass others. The outside lane was heavily snow covered and not really driveable, but people were going in there and trying to pass. People are in too much of a hurry and they are putting themselves and everyone else at risk when they drive like that.”
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