Officers from the Fraser Valley traffic unit and B.C. Ambulance Service paramedics were responding.
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A serious accident involving a semi and multiple other cars on the Coquihalla has the highway shut down south bound.
The major artery between B.C.’s Interior and the southern coast was cut off southbound while 10 ground ambulances and other emergency vehicles rushed to the scene around 2:30 p.m.
Kenward told CTV News that he’d passed the scene just as emergency vehicles arrived, and said several people had gotten out of their vehicles to tend to those who had been injured.
BC RCMP said they are unable to confirm information about the number or vehicles involved or injuries. “It was just a mess”, CFJC Today quoted Norm Draeger as saying.
Courtney Starheim was travelling in the opposite direction of the crash and says they could smell the brakes of the truck and those inside her vehicle commented on it.
“There was no way that semi would have been able to safety have stopped before the stopped traffic”, she says.
It happened between Hope and the summit, near Box Canyon.
Police and the province’s ministry of transportation are now investigating why the truck failed to stop, Wutke said.
“We’d like to thank the motoring public for their patience and understanding as getting the injured to hospital was our first priority”, Const. Melissa Wutke said in a statement.
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Drive BC says Highway 5 is now closed southbound at Box Canyon and suggesting drivers use an alternate route.
