Woman, child dead in Tuesday’s B.C. highway crash involving six vehicles

CHILLIWACK, B.C. — Police in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley say a woman and a child died in Tuesday’s multi-vehicle crash on Highway 1.

A statement from RCMP Highway Patrol says a second child from the same vehicle is expected to survive after being taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Cpl. Melissa Jongema says the woman was from B.C. and she and the children were part of the same family.

The crash in Chilliwack, east of Vancouver, involved six vehicles with 10 drivers and passengers, but Mounties say there were no other injuries.

They say initial information suggests that one or more of the vehicles stopped abruptly due to an “obstruction” on the highway.

Jongema says police have received reports that it was a ladder, but they’re still investigating.

“It’s going to take some time to look into all the complex details about how a six-car collision ended up happening,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “There were a lot of factors involved.”

The statement from Highway Patrol says at least one vehicle failed to stop in time, setting off a “chain reaction of collisions.”

The investigation is in its early stages, the statement says, but impairment is not believed to be a factor in the crash in the highway’s eastbound lanes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 7, 2024.

The Canadian Press