Two vehicles were weaving through traffic at high speed on West Shore and Saanich streets Tuesday before one of them crashed, went off-road along McKenzie Avenue near Burnside Road West, and caught fire, trapping a woman inside, police said.
Passersby rushed to help, pulling the woman from the wreck as the vehicle burst into flames.
The woman, 33, suffered injuries that are serious but non-life-threatening.
Saanich police Sgt. Steve Eassie said witnesses reported that, prior to the crash, two vehicles were travelling “at a fairly high rate of speed” on Burnside Road West.
A domestic argument might have been behind the incident, Eassie said.
“One of the vehicles may have come into contact with the other. Whether that was intentional or not, I don’t know. It then veered off, went into another vehicle, into oncoming traffic … and ultimately went off road.”
The male driver of one of the other vehicles suffered minor injuries.
Neil Patterson and Don Siebert of Price’s Lock & Safe happened to be driving by at the time of the collision, about 11:25 a.m.
They stopped their vehicle and raced to the damaged car to see what they could do. They quickly got the woman out of the vehicle.
“There was definitely smoke,” Patterson said shortly afterward. “Then smoke changed and you could tell there were flames underneath the car, and we had to get her out of there.”
They first tried to get to her from the driver’s-side door, but it wouldn’t budge.
“We had to go through the passenger side and pull her out,” Patterson said.
The woman appeared to be in shock when the men got to her.
Patterson said he and Siebert were happy to be in a position to help.
“We couldn’t drive by. It was a split-second thing and we feel pretty good about it right now.”
Patterson said it would take a while to get over what happened. “It’s bizarre. My adrenalin was pumping big time.”
Firefighters were on scene quickly and put out the car fire.
Sarah Newton and her husband, Bret, also stopped when they saw the wreckage to see if they could help.
“We realized that there was still a woman slumped over in the front seat, and she didn’t look good,” she said. “The airbag had deployed. The front of the vehicle was completely crumpled.”
Newton said her husband has first-aid training and was ready to do what he could. “But when we got out, we realized the vehicle was smoking more, and we saw some flames.”
They were there to see Patterson and Siebert get the woman out of the car.
“They moved really quickly,” Newton said.
“There were maybe four or five guys making sure that she was well away from the vehicle and that she was on her back and that she was OK.”
Eassie said there are indications the two vehicles began travelling together in the West Shore area before heading down the Trans-Canada Highway to the Tillicum Road exit.
From there, the possible route took them to Burnside, followed by a couple of loops of the parking lot at Victoria Bingo Palace before they headed back onto Burnside.
Then came a left turn to stay on Burnside at the Burnside-Interurban intersection, and the cars continued toward McKenzie where the crash occurred.
After investigators combed the area for evidence, the roadway was fully reopened to traffic about 1:30 p.m.
No names have been released.
View McKenzie Ave & Burnside Rd W in a larger map
