A novice driver walked away without serious injury after the car he was driving was sheared in half in a head-on collision on the Alberni Highway on Saturday night.
The RCMP’s Central Island Traffic Services was called at about 7:55 p.m., said Const. Jeff Pesat.
“We had a report of a head-on collision on the Alberni Highway with one vehicle torn in half and, it was believed, two persons trapped in one of the vehicles.”
The 1991 BMW was travelling westbound near the entrance to Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park when it left its lane and struck and eastbound Dodge Dakota pickup, said Pesat.
“The BMW was sheared into two pieces, but the driver actually walked away from it,” said Pesat on Sunday afternoon, adding the man was later taken to hospital for a precautionary check. “The passenger in the pickup was transported to hospital and is still there.”
Pesat said the highway was slick with the first rainfall after more than a month of dry weather.
“We’re still investigating the factors that led to this incident, whether it was just the weather, or if speed was a factor,” he said.
The highway was limited to single-lane, alternating traffic for a time after the collision before reopening. At about the time the road was to re-open, RCMP received another call of a single-vehicle incident several kilometres to the west, alongside Cameron Lake.
“That was a car that spun out and ended up in the ditch,” Pesat said, adding that nobody was injured. “It was definitely very slippery out there.”