Accused driver in B.C. wrong-way motorhome crash criminally charged

A woman has been criminally charged over a wrong-way motorhome crash that closed Highway 1 in West Vancouver for hours last year.

In a media release Thursday, West Vancouver police said 29-year-old Fernie, B.C., resident Alexandra Georgson was facing five counts of  dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm related to the Sept. 21, 2022, crash.

The crash happened shortly after 11 a.m., between the Cypress Bowl exit and 22nd Street, snarling traffic for more than seven hours.

Police said the driver of a motorhome was travelling westbound in the freeway’s eastbound lanes, which “caused two other vehicles to swerve before going head on with the third and final vehicle.”

0:39 Aerial view of major West Vancouver crash involving motorhome

Video footage from the scene showed the crashed motorhome lying on its side on top of another car, with its contents — including what appeared to be a mature cannabis plant — strewn across the highway and shoulder.

“When they were heading this way I see the car in front of me, it was a black car, swerve out of the way and I was like, ‘Why are they doing that?'” one of the crash survivors, who gave his name only as Quinton, told Global News at the scene of the collision.

“As soon as they swerved out of the way I see the camper and it’s like literally a couple of metres in front of me. I swerve as fast as I can, it hits the side of me, my airbag deploys, it hits my arm, we go f—ing rolling, and that’s it.”

At the time, B.C. Emergency Health Services said paramedics took six people to hospital, two in critical condition, two in serious condition and two in stable condition.

Georgson is due back in court on Dec. 13.