Highway 5 is now open in both directions following two multi-vehicle accidents on Sunday. Several people were transported to hospital. One woman died when she got out of her vehicle following the crash.
B.C. Emergency Health Services confirms two different accidents occurred on the highway stretch, injuring 10 people in total.
Five of the injured were transported by ground to Nicola Valley Hospital and five were transported to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.
“Cars were just slamming into each other and spinning off to the side, it was just mayhem,” Steve Hamilton, a resident of Kamloops who witnessed the crash, told Global News.
Hamilton said he was driving home to Kamloops with his two daughters when they passed through a sudden snow squall. Every car on the road was driving between 120 and 130 km/h, Hamilton said, and upon hitting the storm, cars started flying out of control.
“It had stopped snowing and the road was relatively clear, but as we came up and over the crest of the hill and the road veered off to the right, the snow was just pounding down, just really wet, heavy, freezing-rain-snow mix.”
“It must have caught the first car off guard,” Hamilton said. “They hit the brakes and started going sideways. A guy who had just passed me literally 500 metres before, was rolling down the median of the highway as I went through.”
Hamilton said he was just trying to hang onto his steering wheel and swerve his way through the chaos, “It was just absolute chaos.”
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“I hit the brakes and I was like ‘Girls, hang on!'”
Just as he had finally made it past the first crash site, another driver had slid out of control not too far ahead.
About a kilometre past the crash site, the roads were completely bare, he said. By the time they reached Merritt, several police cars and at least a dozen ambulances passed them on route to the crash, Hamilton said.
He counts himself and his family extremely lucky to have made it through the pile-up unscathed
Hours after making it home from the drive, Hamilton said he’s still shaking. From his traumatic experience, he cautioned other drivers to stay alert.
“Highway conditions can change in a moment. You just can’t let your guard down for a second. It’s an extremely dangerous road,” Hamilton urged.
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