UPDATE: Accident sends two to hospital, shuts down Highway 97 for 7 hours

LAKE COUNTRY, B.C. – UPDATE 12:30 p.m. to include witness account:

An accident involving high speed on Highway 97 shut down the route for more than seven hours early Tuesday morning.

The collision between a Cadillac and Chevy truck hauling a trailer happened on a four lane stretch near the Beaver Lake Road intersection at Lake Country at 10:15 p.m.

RCMP say the Cadillac lost control on a curve and crossed into oncoming lanes. Alcohol was not a factor, according to RCMP.

According to witnesses, the white Cadillac was seen travelling northbound on the highway at a high rate of speed right before the crash, say police.

“That Cadillac passed us around Duck Lake, going at least 150-160 km/hr,” says a comment from Nicky Dooley Brown on the Global Okanagan Facebook page. “(He was swerving in and out of traffic). We were in the right hand lane, and he came up behind us and swerved out into the left lane, speeding past us and back into our lane. Then he did the same to the other vehicle ahead of us.”

Dooley Brown goes on to post, “Approximately 45 seconds later we came into Winfield where the speed limit drops to 70 and then 50 and saw he had crashed into the pick up. A tire was rolling in the middle of the road, and the vehicles were still steaming/smoking and leaking fluids. He was driving like an asshat, so we hope no one in the truck was injured. His vehicle is clearly totaled, but he needs his license revoked. There’s no reason to drive like a maniac. He’s lucky he didn’t kill someone — but we still don’t know what happened to the person/people in the pick up truck.”

Both men in the Cadillac were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, with the passenger sustaining more serious injuries.

A 24-year-old Alberta man could face potential dangerous driving charges.

Police spent the night investigating the accident scene, keeping the highway closed until about 6 a.m.