Highway 1 in Chilliwack re-opens after fatal motorcycle crash

Highway 1 in Chilliwack has re-opened after two separate accidents this morning; one of them fatal.

RCMP responded to a single vehicle crash eastbound on Highway 1 at the Annis Road overpass. A single vehicle went off the road and rolled. The two people in the vehicle fled the scene on foot.

As a result of the accident, traffic was stopped going eastbound.

While officers were on the scene, they got a call about another collision involving a motorcycle, about two kilometres west between the Annis and Gibsons overpasses.

Around 10:25 a.m., a 72-year-old Pitt Meadows man was travelling eastbound on Highway 1 on his Suzuki motorcycle when he came up on the stopped traffic. He hit the brakes but lost control and flew off the bike.

He slid into the slow lane, hitting a Ford SUV which was stopped in traffic.

The man died of his injuries at the scene. The two occupants of the SUV were not injured.

Police say weather and road conditions don’t appear to have been contributing factors in this fatal collision however, traffic conditions, speed, mechanical defects on the motorcycle and driver inattention have not been ruled out.

The Fraser Valley Traffic Services, the Office of the Provincial Coroner and the Integrated Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Service are continuing their investigations.

Anyone with information is asked to call Constable Peter Ostrom at the Fraser Valley Traffic Services Office at 604-702-4039.