The dangerous stretch of road was shut down just before noon as emergency crews pulled several cars out of the ditch, but the closure south of Shawnigan Lake Road wasn’t expected to last long, said Shawnigan Lake RCMP.
B.C. Ambulance reported they took eight people to Victoria General Hospital around 11 a.m. shortly after snow started to pile up.
Snow hit most communities on the east side of Vancouver Island Tuesday morning. Environment Canada expected to see up to 10 centimetres fall in some higher elevations north of the Malahat.
“The worst of it has fallen already,” said Greg Pearce, forecaster technologist for Environment Canada.
People had a white Christmas in areas like the Comox Valley, Nanaimo and Duncan. The weather system should make its way through in the next couple hours, Pearce reported Tuesday afternoon.
Mounties are warning drivers to avoid the Malahat, if they don’t have to be on the road.
Snow fall has avoided Victoria for the first two major dumps of the season. Strong winds battered parts of the Capital Region, knocking out power to thousands.
More than 2,600 customers were without power in Oak Bay alone with strong gusts reportedly reaching up to 80 km/h at times, according to Environment Canada.
Victoria harbour saw winds reaching up to 56 km/h.
