A 40-year-old motorcyclist from Victoria is dead after a head-on crash on the Trans-Canada Highway, one of three serious crashes that closed the Malahat in a span of 48 hours.
A total of 10 people were taken to hospital in the three crashes — two of which were head-on — within a six-kilometre stretch of highway on Saturday and Sunday.
West Shore RCMP spokesman Const. Alex Berube said he can’t remember the last time that many serious crashes affected the Malahat in a single weekend. Malahat Fire Chief Rob Patterson said the fatality demonstrates the urgency for barriers along the entire length of the Malahat.
On Sunday night around 8:12 p.m., a northbound blue Suzuki motorcycle appeared to cross the centre line, colliding with a southbound GMC Sierra pickup truck pulling a 30-foot trailer. Emergency crews rushed to the scene, north of Aspen Road.
The man was pronounced dead on scene. All three occupants of the pickup were transported to hospital with injuries.
A stretch of highway on each side of the crash scene was closed in both directions until about 1 a.m. Monday as traffic analysts investigated. Speed is considered a factor.
The family of the motorcyclist has been notified and are receiving help from victim services, Berube said. The man’s name has not been released.
Earlier on Sunday, around 5:30 a.m., a VW Golf carrying three teenagers went off the road in 3500 block of the Trans-Canada Highway at an area known as Falcon Heights, near Finlayson Arm, in the West Shore. All three teens, who are from Nanaimo, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The driver was an unlicensed 15-year-old girl who was driving her friend’s car, Berube said. Mounties are investigating and the driver could face criminal charges or a ticket under the Motor Vehicle Act.
The southbound lane of the highway was closed until 8 a.m. Sunday.
A 27-year-old Duncan woman is facing impaired driving charges relating to a crash that sent four people to hospital on Saturday morning. West Shore RCMP launched a criminal investigation and the driver is to appear in Western Communities Court on Nov. 12.
In the Saturday crash, police, firefighters and paramedics rushed to the Malahat near the entrance to Goldstream Park just before 9 a.m. after a southbound Honda Accord and a northbound Volkswagen sedan collided head-on.
Each vehicle was operated by a female driver and had a single passenger, said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Darren Lagan.
B.C. Ambulance paramedics took four patients to Victoria General Hospital — two in critical condition and two in stable condition.
The crash, which closed a section of the highway for more than four hours, occurred in a narrow, two-lane stretch of the highway in an area without centre medians.
Centre barriers have been installed along a 2.3 kilometre stretch of the highway between Shawnigan Lake Road and the Malahat summit, part of an $8.3 million project announced in 2014 by the Ministry of Transportation. That still leaves half of the Malahat Drive without barriers, Patterson said.
“Those two little yellow lines in the centre don’t stop any vehicle from travelling over,” Patterson said. “We’ve seen too many people pay with their lives. It’s time to get this thing fixed. My [firefighters] are tired of seeing people torn apart.”
