Southbound rush hour traffic in Nanaimo was slowed Thursday when two crashes occurred within moments of each other on the Island Highway.
A Ford pickup collided with a Chevy minivan at the intersection of the Island Highway, Old Victoria Road and Haliburton Street, shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday. The crash sent the minivan's female driver to hospital. That collision was followed up with a second one just after 5 p.m. when a southbound car, approaching the Island Highway from the Nanaimo Parkway, struck a lamp standard and spun into a ditch.
The incidents tied up traffic and emergency serviced on the major southbound routes out of Nanaimo for the better part of one hour as the wrecks were cleared.
Both crashes are under investigation.