Accident Results in Serious Injuries, Highway Closure
Serious injuries and heavy damage are reported in Highway 16 collision. Photos 250News
Prince George, B.C. – Serious injuries are reported in a two-vehicle collision which has closed Highway 16 west to all traffic at the intersection with Vance Road.
RCMP Cpl Craig Douglass says the collision between a pick-up that was towing a trailer loaded with sand or gravel and a passenger vehicle has resulted in serious injuries. However, he could not say how many people were involved in the accident or how many are injured.
Cpl Douglass says the collision, which occurred at approximately 12:30 pm, has closed the highway to all traffic and, he says, “it will remain closed for several hours.” Motorists are advised to use Ospika Boulevard as the alternate route until further notice.
Traffic is backed up in both directions as Highway 16 remains closed to all traffic.
Police continue their investigation of the collision.
Comments
Looks like we are going to have to resort to railway crossing type gates for some of these intersections!
But then, people drive around those too.
Wow :-( Thoughts go out to the injured, hope there were no kids involved. Adults can pay the consequences for their own mistakes, kids should’nt have to. IMO.
Typically only one vehicle’s driver made a mistake. Sometimes none; sometimes both; on some occasions a third party not even involved in the crash.
X2
Looks like it’s time to make an underpass/overpass there, that would solve a ton if issues. Trucks in the winter wouldn’t be causing problems.
Or just finish the Ospika connector, would take the pressure off that and the Domano intersection
^^^ This.
If not, we need a real overhaul of Vance/Cowart AND Ferry/Highway intersections. Include those advance warning lights of a signal/light change. It’s unbelievable it’s taken this long.
What a wonderful idea, I guess you don’t mind paying for that do you?
I am sick and tired of this intersection causing several highway closures each year. They (the highways department) have tried to be proactive and installed lights before the intersection warning vehicles the lights will be changing. However traveling this road daily I see only a fraction of motorists use these warning lights to stop. The majority use these lights as an indication to put the peddle down and reach speeds well over the 60kph which is posted. Maybe it is time the RCMP be proactive and set up speed traps in the area. I would hazard a guess there would be many tickets handed out in a short period of time.
Perhaps we need to ban left turns at this intersection, or program the traffic lights to allow a separate cycle for left turns only. Through traffic would then have it’s own cycle, without left turns occurring into oncoming traffic.
Adding a separate left turn cycle, occurring without through traffic might add a few seconds of delay, but how many accidents have occurred at this intersection, the majority seeming to be left turns into oncoming traffic?
Excellent point Hart Guy. I agree with this.
The advice on the radio- use Ospika—that was absolutely no better. I never did get to where I wanted to be-gave up and headed home. We really need that connector finished!! By the same token an accident on the Hart hill with the dividers in it is going to cause grief someday, too.
It may also prevent more serious accidents on the Hart hill though. Might cause some inconvenience for same direction accidents, but I’d rather not get in a head-on on that corner in the winter.
this intersection as well as the hwy and ferry both need dedicated turn signals.
There’s a accident at the intersection once a month at least.time to figure something else out I think city of PG you bunch of idiots
Provincial highway, been saying it for a long time now, left turn signal is fine, then red like most others, ministry of transportation engineers won’t even talk about it. Surprised RCMP and ICBC don’t gang up on them.
But, that may not be what caused this incident.
My lady spent a long time in the traffic jam… and of course you had numerous idiots who wouldn’t let people in etc.. guess their time is more important than anyone elses.
But just think…this a very rare occurrence in PG..but a daily thing in Van…they can have it.
In the last week, I’ve seen three vehicles run the red light ( light was red before they even entered intersection) , two had N on back. THere should be dedicated left turn arrows with no turn on full green at both Ferry and Range roads. Doesn’t matter what they do, people will not comply anyway. Try driving 50 km / hr around town and see how that works. A lot of people don’t know the laws!
Oh they know the laws, they just choose to ignore them.
Be nice if they opened the two lanes that weren’t affected and had traffic people guiding traffic. The pictures showed both vehicles in the old Mr get parking pretty much anyway … so why not open those? It is silly that they close the entire highway for that long. That being said I am very sorry for people involved as is always the case when the road is closed … a fatality has happened. My thoughts are with those affected.
What the analyst has to do is start his investigation from where the incident stared to where it stopped, that’s why it’s the way it is.
The analyst, who has to come from out of town, has to be able to mark all debris and marks from the accident. Some of this may have spread to other lanes that may not have been involved directly in the accident. If they opened up the lanes to traffic then some evidence of the accident may be compromised. It is a nuisance, yes, but if it was your family in the accident wouldn’t you want to make sure that everything was investigated to the fullest capacity.
Time for ospika to be completed and the bridge to connect 97s and 16w considering how one accident can tie up a major connector. mainly thinking about emergency vehicles.
On Drive BC the traffic camera for that location is either down or turned off?
nothing wrong with the road. reckless drivers in a hurry for no good reason. That’s the only problem. If you drive with caution and sense you can avoid any collision at or below the posted speed limit in the city.
Roads and their signs, signals, guards, etc. are supposed to be designed to be as safe as reasonably possible. When there are more crashes on certain sections of roads, intersections, curves, etc. than on other sections of roads, then those sections are less safe than the other sections.
Keep in mind that the same level of trained and experienced drivers drive all those sections of roads, yet some sections are more prone to crashes than others.
So, I disagree. There is something wrong with this road and intersection and some of the comments on here make good suggestions of how to improve the safety of the roads. Remember, the intersection of Domano and HWY 16 was reconstructed recently for that very reason – to increase the safety of the intersection.
I was there at 5pm this afternoon, parked at the west end of the parking lot of Boston Pizza. There were people there who were there since the accident. So, hearsay information includes the following.
The reason the road was closed for so long (it was apparently going to be closed for at least another 2 hours) was because they were waiting for a coroner to arrive from Kamloops. That basically means that at least one person died as a result of the collision while in the vehicle. Apparently another person was taken from the vehicle, placed on a gurney while a responder was on the gurney trying to maintain life signs.
It appears that the passenger vehicle went through a red light to make a left turn into Vance Road. The truck must have come at a fairly fast pace and pushed the van 3+ car lengths onto the vacant corner property.
Driving the streets around the intersection – Vance, Range, Westwood, etc. was terrible. As we left Costco, we turned onto Westwood towards Pine Centre. At the intersection of the Westwood entrance to Pin Centre we encounters a second accident when a truck, exiting from the Centre, hit a motorbike.
When a busy part of the city has to be shut down for so long with no reasonable alternate routes and what I would say were insufficient traffic police attending, something is not being planned to best practices standards.
Please bear in mind, heresay is the same as gossip and rumours.
That is why I pointed out that it was hearsay. Even if I would have talked to one of the two officers who were still standing around waiting, it would have been hearsay since I doubt either of them were there at the time of the collision.
I believe the person I got the information from may actually have been an eye witness.
BTW, there is no other reason I can think of why nothing was moved. It is required under the law that nothing be disturbed until the coroner arrives.
Collision reconstructions can be done within a time span of 2 to 3 hours. These days that can end up with a 3D walk-around image of the scene of the collision after the fact. It is also possible to use drones to photograph the scene from perspectives that one would not normally view it, including direct aerial of the scene and even flying probable paths at driver eye levels.
If the suv ran a red then so did the truck, that is how far hearsay gets you
Since the driver was only 17, inexperienced, maybe turned left on the steady green with a vehicle in front turning left onto Cowart blocking her view. Inexperience maybe contributed to her not checking thoroughly for oncoming traffic. A tragedy she will have to live with the rest of here life.
No left turns should be allowed on 16/Vance/Cowart and 16/Ferry without a green arrow.
I firmly believe that by bringing back photo radar, traffic light cameras and having a dedicated traffic enforcement division, there may be a reduction in some of these traffic accidents.
I do not know the details or fault in this accident, but people drive too fast, follow too close and get brave with running lights.
I agree that an under/overpass is needed at more than a few of these problem highway areas, but the govt isnt hopping in to help out here. The Ospika connector appears to be far off in the future too.
More policing and stiffer fines are the more likely fixes for now.
Easy fix….
Over and over this has happened here and at the Ferry intersection.
DEDICATED LEFT TURN SIGNALS!!!!!!
How many more accidents, injuries, and deaths need to occur before this happens!
Papermaker there are dedicated left turn signals but then after them there is a steady regular green. Maybe there should be no turning left without an arrow.
They are not dedicated left turn signals. They are advanced left turn signals. Hwy 16/97 intersection has dedicated turn signals for instance, as does Domano/hwy16
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