Two people are dead following a head-on collision on Highway 19 Thursday evening, just south of the Buckley Bay turnoff.
Shortly after 6 p.m., a southbound sedan crossed the meridian and collided head-on with a northbound minivan.
The female driver of the car died at the scene. One of the two occupants of the minivan died later in hospital.
Highway 19 northbound at Cook Creek Road was closed to traffic for hours, and traffic was required to re-route to Highway 19A.
Authorities as still trying to determine why the southbound vehicle crossed the meridian.
“The number of accidents that we have seen, since they raised the speed limit up here on the highway [from 110 to 120 km/h] have increased,” said Deep Bay fire Chief George Lenz, at the scene. “If people don’t slow down, especially in wet weather, bad weather, then we are going to continue to be up here [investigating accidents]. People slow down in the snow, it seems, but they don’t slow down when the roads are bad. Wet roads are just as hazardous as snowy roads, if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
The condition of the second person in the minivan is not known at this time. It is unclear whether it was the driver, or passenger, of the minivan that perished.
-With files from CTV Vancouver Island
