The woman who was struck by a “volleyball-sized rock” while driving on Highway 1 in Burnaby, B.C., last week has died, police said Wednesday.
The incident happened just after 11:20 a.m. on Thursday, June 6, as the driver was heading west on the freeway at Willingdon Avenue.
At the time, the BC Highway Patrol said an “unknown object” had smashed through the vehicle’s front windshield, hitting the driver and leaving them in critical condition.
Investigators later determined the object was a large rock.
The highway patrol confirmed Wednesday that the victim was a 34-year-old woman.
“We have not determined where the rock came from yet,” highway patrol spokesperson Cpl. Melissa Jongema told Global News.
“We still haven’t ruled out the intentionality of it or we haven’t ruled criminality out.”
Police do not believe it was dropped from an overpass.
“This is a very rare incident,” Cpl. Melissa Jongema with BC Highway Patrol told Global News in a previous interview.
“Usually when we have people injured in collisions on the highway, it is a result of impairment or a rockslide or another vehicle not maintaining their lane. Wildlife even. But to have an object come through a windshield is not common.”
The collision resulted in a multi-hour closure of Highway 1 westbound, snarling regional traffic for much of the day.
Investigators still want to hear from anyone who witnessed the incident or has dash camera video recorded on that stretch of the highway during that period of Thursday morning.
“A lot of people have something but they might not think it’s important or vital … because it might not show the collision,” Jongema said.
“But it is important if you have dashcam of even just the cars on the highway at the time or around the time of the collision to just call us, even if you don’t think it’s important.”