Beach Drive has re-opened after a crash near Ripon Road late Thursday night (May 18).
Oak Bay Police say five local youth were taken to hospital with varying injuries after a car crash around 11:20 p.m.
“As members were arriving they thought they were coming upon a fatal collision based on the scene,” said Deputy Chief Ray Bernoties. Fortunately that wasn’t the case, the driver and four passengers were taken to hospital with varying injuries.
“The driver was sober and fortunately it appears that all were using seatbelts which is likely the reason the injuries weren’t much worse,” Bernoties said.
The file is still under investigation, including using reconstruction and aerial photos “given the serious nature of the file”.
“We try to be extra cautious when there are so many kids involved with so many injuries. You only have the scene once and you don’t want to lose that evidence,” Bernoties said. Beach Drive was closed for several hours for the comprehensive investigation.
Oak Bay public works was notified and expects to deal with damaged infrastructure in the area early next week.
Very serious crash at Beach Drive and Ripon. The road will be closed for some time. Please take an alternate route @OakBayPolice #oakbay #YVR pic.twitter.com/mNXbV713an
— Sgt Rob Smith (@OakBayCop) May 18, 2018
“We’re just so thankful that everyone had their seatbelts on and it wasn’t much worse,” Bernoties said. “Now a long weekend is upon us and we hope that local parents will talk with their kids about this incident and what was done right and what maybe wasn’t so we don’t have these types of incidents in our community again.”
Long weekends, particularly the Victoria Day holiday that leads into the summer season, tends to see a spike in traffic crashes.
“It’s something that sweeps the province if not the country, the long weekend summer road safety issues,” Bernoties said. “People can expect to see us out tonight and throughout the weekend.”
May long weekend has arrived! ☀️We hope you have fun but PLEASE be mindful of the fact that there were "290 crashes on Vancouver Island (on this wknd) in 2016" @icbc On avg, 2 people die in a crash in BC this wknd. Lets dramatically improve those stats this year #yyj! Goal 0 pic.twitter.com/BdqKl5XLOo
— Oak Bay Police (@OakBayPolice) May 18, 2018
cvanreeuwyk@oakbaynews.com
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