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By Victor Kaisar

Highway Crash

RCMP seeking witnesses to determine ‘exact cause’ of Saturday crash near Rayleigh

May 11, 2025 | 12:19 PM

KAMLOOPS — (UPDATE May 12, 9:45 a.m.): RCMP say they’re still investigating Saturday’s (May 10) two-vehicle crash between an unmarked police vehicle and a pickup truck on Highway 5 in Kamloops, and they’re asking more witnesses to come forward so they can determine “exactly how it happened.”

In a statement Sunday, police confirm that the crash was between an unmarked BC Highway Patrol vehicle and a blue Ford Ranger pickup truck. Both vehicles were heading north when the crash happened around 8:32 a.m., just south of Rayleigh.

“Police have spoken to multiple witnesses and collected multiple dash-camera videos, but we need to be thorough and we would welcome more witnesses,” RCMP Cpl. Michael McLaughlin with BC Highway Patrol said in statement.

“The investigation is in its early stages but there are no obvious indications of criminality to this point.”

Dash cam footage posted to Facebook appears to show the police vehicle make a sudden U-turn right before it collided with the pickup truck, which flipped onto its passenger side. The RCMP vehicle lost its rear driver’s side tire following the impact.

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McLaughlin says the police officer as well as two women from Maple Ridge who were in the other pickup, a 21-year-old driver and a 19-year-old passenger, were all taken to hospital as a precaution.

Reached for comment, McLaughlin told CFJC that while police are actively looking for more video, including some that has been posted to social media, video footage itself does not always paint a full picture.

“Videos don’t show things like speed or whether drivers were distracted or impaired or whether police had lights and sirens on, or for how long they had them on,” he said. “They also don’t show police driving behaviour or what file they might have been responding to, or whether someone was following too closely or whether the police officer made an unsafe turn.”

“All of those are possibilities that must be investigated thoroughly so we are going to talk to all witnesses and review all video before we come to a conclusion.”

CFJC Today has also reached out to one of the women who said they were in the Ford pickup truck but has not heard back yet.

There were lengthy traffic delays on Highway 5 Saturday as a single lane of alternating traffic was in place for around nine hours to facilitate the investigation and clean-up.

RCMP are asking people who witnessed the crash or the minutes leading up to it, to contact the BC Highway Patrol in Kamloops at 250-828-3111 and quote file 2100 2025-1361.

Editors note: This story was updated on May 12 to add a bit more information from BC Highway Patrol spokesperson Cpl. Michael McLaughlin.