3 killed in commercial vehicle crash on Highway 5 north of Kamloops
CBC
A multi-vehicle crash north of Kamloops, B.C., Wednesday killed three people and left two others in critical condition, according to the B.C. RCMP.
Const. James Ward of the B.C. RCMP's Highway Patrol says police received reports of the incident at 3329 Highway 5, between Little Fort and Clearwater, B.C, around 10:50 a.m.
Ward says witnesses reported a truck towing a trailer collided with a car and another pickup after spinning out of control.
"One of the pickups bounced off and struck another vehicle, and that vehicle ended up in the ditch," he said.
Ward says traffic on Highway 5 will be blocked in both directions for the next four to six hours while investigators and road reconstructionists comb the scene.
The crash follows two fatal crashes in February involving commercial vehicles along a roughly 40-kilometre stretch of Highway 5 north of Kamloops.
Mayor Ward Stamer of Barriere, B.C., a district municipality located on Highway 5 about 58 kilometres north of Kamloops, has called for temporary speed reductions during winter and making dashcams mandatory for all commercial vehicles as a way of improving safety on Highway 5.
Last month, Stamer said vehicle crashes on the highway had increased where it reduces from four lanes to two.
"All of a sudden, you're just on a regular two-lane highway, and you're getting into some rock cuts and fairly winding, twisty roads," he said.
Clearwater Mayor Merlin Blackwell says he had driven along the stretch of highway Wednesday morning before the crash, and he doesn't believe the incident was related to weather or road conditions.
But Blackwell says the number of violation tickets being issued to speeding trucks on Highway 5 has increased over the last month.
"Five hundred and eleven tickets were issued over the last 24 days on Highway 5N (north), of which 332 were for speeding," he said on CBC's Daybreak Kamloops. "That's shocking to me."
On Monday, Blackwell and Stamer met B.C. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming to discuss their concerns and press for more immediate action on highway truck crashes.
Blackwell says he stressed the importance of having B.C. Highway Patrol police officers stationed in Clearwater and police officers based in Kamloops to respond to fatal incidents on the highway
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