A fatal, fiery truck crash in Delta shut down sections of Highway 99 for most of Wednesday as crews diverted traffic around the scene for kilometres in either direction in a series of shifting closures.
Emergency crews were called out shortly before 9 a.m. to Highway 99 near Highway 17a — just south of the Massey Tunnel — where a southbound gravel truck pulling a trailer lost control, drove through a concrete barrier, flipped onto its side and caught fire, say Mounties.
As the truck slid into the northbound fast lane, it slammed into a pair of vehicles, said Constable Mike Moore, an RCMP spokesman.
After the commercial truck and trailer came to a stop, witnesses at the scene tried to pull its trapped driver out of the cab, which was by that point fully engulfed in flames, said Moore.
Despite their efforts, the driver — the lone occupant of the vehicle — died.
B.C. Ambulance sent four ground ambulances to the scene and they took the drivers of both northbound vehicles to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
Firefighters from four cities rushed to the scene and eventually put out the blaze, but the accident shut down the highway from morning rush hour into the evening.
In the case of fatal accidents, crews are required to wait until investigators arrive on scene before they begin the lengthy process of clearing the road, said Moore.
He explained that measurements need to be taken, tire tracks and damage need to be photographed, witnesses need to be interviewed, and GPS co-ordinates must be plotted.
In the case of Wednesday’s crash, heavy tow trucks and flat deck trailers needed to be called in to remove the crumpled truck, which Moore said had split in two during the accident, haz-mat teams were needed to clean up fuel and dirt, and an excavator was brought in to moved the concrete divider back into place.
The Massey Tunnel was shut down in both directions immediately after the crash, according to Drive BC, but the northbound lanes soon reopened, followed by the southbound lanes around 10:45 a.m. The closure points continually shifted through the day and at times, commuters were diverted off Highway 99 as many as 10 kilometres away from the site. Delta police and Drive BC advised drivers to use Highway 91, but a rolling trucker protest was already causing a significant traffic jam on that highway. The container truck drivers were protesting new regulations at Port Metro Vancouver.
Moore said the decisions on how and where traffic should be diverted are not made by any one person, but primarily based on keeping crews at the scene safe and certain routes open so heavy equipment could be hauled in.
“Unfortunately when you block the highway off like that, like a major route, then all of the options tend to get plugged up,” said Moore.
“Obviously the motoring public, they want to get home. We understand that. We want to get home too, but we owe it to the families of everyone involved to do a complete and thorough investigation.”
By the evening commute, drivers in both directions were using the Massey Tunnel, but southbound traffic was at a near standstill because the cleanup and investigation kept Highway 99 closed between highways 17 and 17a into the evening, and the counterflow lanes were not opened.
Deas Island RCMP, Delta police, Richmond RCMP and the B.C. Coroners Service investigated the crash. Police did not release the victim’s name.
Earlier this month, the driver of an over-height truck driving southbound on Highway 99 hit the Ladner Trunk overpass, kept driving, then lodged his vehicle under the 112th Street overpass, shutting down the highway for hours.
A similar accident occurred in October 2013 when a truck crashed into the Highway 10 overpass, also closing the highway.
