A man was rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries after a two-car crash on the Malahat near McCurdy Drive this afternoon. The Malahat was closed in both directions for about three hours as officials cleared the scene and investigated the crash. Drive B.C. at 8 p.m. reported that traffic was moving again, alternating directions in a single lane.
Lana Hunter, a manager at Malahat Mountain Meadow RV Park near the crash scene, said the seriously injured man is named Matt, a resident of the RV park.
Just after the crash, Hunter spoke with the driver of a white pickup truck, who was not seriously injured in the crash.
He told Hunter he was driving northbound and Matt was stopped in the merging lane on the far-right side of the northbound lanes.
The driver told Hunter that the red van which Matt was driving pulled out across the lanes of traffic to make a left hand turn into the southbound lanes, which is illegal.
"He was waiting for a break to scoot across the highway to make a left," Hunter said.
The white truck hit the red van on the driver’s side, sending the hood of the truck into the van; both vehicles careened across the highway and smashed into a barrier.
Hunter saw paramedics performing CPR on Matt, who was unconscious. She does not know his condition.
She said Matt's wife was distraught and was escorted away by RCMP officers.
"I talked to her, she's not doing good," Hunter said.
Matt, a father, has been living at the RV park for a few months.
RCMP, Malahat Fire and B.C. paramedics responded to the scene around 5 p.m. DriveBC said the road was closed in both directions from the Malahat summit to the Bamberton exit. Traffic started moving again about 8 p.m. in an alternating single lane. Long lines of cars were completely stopped waiting for their turn. Traffic was moving in both directions again by 9 p.m.
The five-kilometre section of the highway between Shawnigan Lake Road and Aspen Road, which includes McCurdy Drive and Malahat Village, has been tapped for $34 million in safety upgrades, announced by the province in July.
Construction, set to start next year, will expand the Trans-Canada Highway to four lanes through Malahat Village and add three kilometres of median barriers.
The announcement comes after Dave Paulin died Nov. 18 when his southbound car was struck by a northbound pickup truck that crossed the centre line just north of Aspen Road near Malahat Village. The head-on crash shut down a 17.6-kilometre stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway and renewed calls for safety improvements.
Malahat Fire Chief Rob Patterson has long advocated for median barriers as an essential part of preventing head-on fatal collisions.
