After two people died and three more were injured in a horrific crash near the Granville Bridge off-ramp in downtown Vancouver Monday afternoon, Vancouver Police are saying speed may have been a contributing factor in an area that’s already ‘problematic for speed.’
The collision happened near Seymour and Davie streets around 5:30 p.m. when a white Lexus SUV heading northbound on Seymour struck a tree and then a lamp post.
The two occupants of the vehicle were killed instantly. They have now been identified as 68-year-old driver Matthew Shui-Sang Ma and his 70-year-old passenger Linda Yee-Lin Ma. They are a husband and wife.
Three pedestrians, all men in their 30’s, were also struck by the tree and debris. Two are in critical condition but are expected to survive. All three were taken to hospital with a variety of injuries, ranging from lacerations and bruising to a broken femur and punctured lung.
VPD spokesperson Brian Montague says it is not clear how fast the vehicle was travelling, but based on the wreckage and the trail of debris, high speed was likely involved.
“But it’s a bit of a guess right now,” says Montague.
The speed limit on the bridge is 60 km/hr, but the off-ramp speed limit is 50 km/h.
Montague says their traffic enforcement officers regularly patrol Granville Bridge.
“Off hand, I can think of a handful of fatalities that occurred on or near the bridge in the last couple of years, many of them a result of speed,” he says. “It is a place that is a concern.”
WATCH: Vancouver police are looking for witnesses and camera footage as they piece together what happened in the moments just before Monday’s fatal crash. Grace Ke reports.
Police have obtained surveillance video of the crash itself. But they are looking for video that would show what happened in the moments leading up to the accident.
They have also spoken to a number of witnesses.
“What we have is a lot of pieces of the puzzle, little bits of information,” says Montague. “Right now, we are trying to put all that information together to come up with a theory of exactly what happened.”
Montague calls the age of the deceased driver and his passenger puzzling.
“We don’t usually see reckless high rates of speed from someone in their 60s or 70s. It is usually the behaviour we see in young males,” he says. “There is a possibility that there is an underlying medical condition that will be part of the investigation. We won’t know that for sure though until we have a chance to get the results of any post-mortem examinations.”
Investigators are also hoping to get information from the data recorders and air-bag control models within the vehicle.
Montague says it will take some time and they need warrants to obtain that information, but it may provide them with some answers.
“It will even tell us if someone was wearing a seat belt or not. That will fill in the missing pieces, but it will take some time to do that,” he says.
Police are not releasing the names of the deceased at the moment, but Montague says everyone involved in the accident was a Vancouver resident.
Meanwhile, a makeshift memorial is growing at the site of the crash.
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