Slippery conditions lead to Coquihalla chaos

Oct 13, 2017 | 10:10 AM

KAMLOOPS — Occupants of two vehicles escaped injury after a crash on the slippery Coquihalla Highway this morning.

The two-car collision happened northbound near the Inks Lake turnoff.

S/Sgt. Doug Aird of Kamloops Rural RCMP says road conditions certainly played into the collision.

“What we had here was somebody following too close in the poor road conditions, and had run into the back of another vehicle going the same direction,” said Aird.

“A check revealed that both vehicles had adequate tires for the road — one brand new, the other, fairly good tread,” he said. “But people need to drive to the road conditions. Today is not a day to be doing 100 (km/h) or 120 on the Coquihalla.”

“We’re very fortunate today that there were no injuries. We had one vehicle with a load of workers coming from (Highland Valley Copper) back home, phenomenal tires on their vehicle. The other one, adequate tires for the Coquihalla, but the road conditions are very poor this morning.”

The Coquihalla was closed outside of Kamloops through the morning due to the poor driving conditions, but re-opened at about 11:20 a.m.