A Manitoba woman in her 60s died in a head-on collision between a car and a pickup truck on a British Columbia highway over the weekend.
The woman was a passenger in a white Ford sedan that was struck by a Dodge pickup truck on B.C. Highway 97, at the south end of Duck Lake near Kelowna, B.C., shortly before 8:30 a.m. PT Saturday.
Kelowna RCMP said emergency crews found the sedan with serious damage to its front end, while the truck was on its side, engulfed in flames.
Witnesses told police the truck was southbound in the fast lane and appeared to be slowly crossing the painted median into the path of the northbound sedan, which tried to avoid the truck.
The force of the crash caused the truck to roll into the northbound lane, pinching the front end of another car, police said in a news release.
The driver of the truck, a 33-year-old man from the Comox, B.C., area, got out of the vehicle as it caught on fire with the help of passersby. He was taken to Kelowna General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Both people inside the white sedan, who were described by police as "a man and woman from Manitoba both in their 60s," were trapped in the vehicle and had to be extricated by fire crews.
The male driver was taken to the Kelowna hospital with extensive head injuries, while the woman died at the scene, according to police.
A section of Highway 97 was closed in both directions on Saturday morning as RCMP traffic analysts investigated the scene. The highway re-opened by about 1:15 p.m.
RCMP say they believe speed may have been a factor in the crash. Investigators are looking into why the pickup crossed into the northbound lane.
Anyone who saw the crash or was driving southbound on Highway 97 at the time it happened is asked to call the RCMP's Central Okanagan Traffic Services at (250) 980-5353.
- Google Map: Highway 97 at south end of Duck/Ellison Lake, Kelowna, B.C.