A rear-end collision at the intersection of Turner Road and the old Island Highway sent one vehicle hundreds of metres down the wrong side of the highway toward oncoming traffic before the vehicle rolled over.
The crash happened shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 15, when a sport-utility vehicle was allegedly rear-ended by a sedan. The SUV then hit another sedan in front of it before continuing north in the highway’s southbound lanes.
“There were three vehicles involved that started a chain reaction,” said reserve Const. Gary O’Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesperson.
O’Brien said police spoke to a number of witnesses and the parties involved in the collision. The RCMP were reportedly told by the driver of the SUV that its brakes failed to operate after the vehicle was hit from behind. After the SUV was struck it careened into the highway’s southbound lanes and continued about 200 metres before it went off the road and rolled over in the ditch before coming to a stop right-side-up.
O’Brien said airbags deployed in two of the vehicles, but injuries to occupants of the vehicles involved were minor.
Traffic was slowed in all directions through the intersection and on the southbound lanes of the highway for about one hour as firefighters, RCMP and B.C. Ambulance Service crews dealt with what were effectively two crash scenes. The vehicles involved were towed away.
