Sidney/North Saanich RCMP are reminding motorists to keep their eyes on the road after a single-vehicle crash led to two more crashes earlier this week.
On Tuesday morning, RCMP were called to a single-vehicle crash in the southbound lanes of the Pat Bay Highway near the Weiler Avenue pedestrian overpass. The driver of the vehicle suffered a medical incident which caused him to drive off the highway and into a ditch.
According to police, an officer on scene used his vehicle to block a portion of the highway with the emergency lights on to secure the area.
Traffic was proceeding around the police cruiser without incident until the driver of a black SUV, believed to be distracted by the crash, collided with the stationary police vehicle.
“The flashing emergency lights, and a large silver police SUV parked in the road was obviously not enough of a deterrent for a driver who wanted to see what the police officers and emergency crews were doing,” said Cpl Chris Manseau, B.C. RCMP media relations officer, in a release Friday.
The impact of the crash caused significant damage to both vehicles and the driver was transported from the scene by emergency personnel for medical treatment. The police vehicle was unoccupied.
After the second collision, traffic backed up significantly in both directions on the Pat Bay Highway which lead to a third crash in the northbound lanes, also believed to be caused by a driver distracted by the previous two crashes.
“The scene must have become even more interesting for those passing in the northbound lane as another crash occurred when a driver collided with another vehicle that had slowed down to see all of the commotion,” said Manseau.
The collision was minor and both vehicles were drive-able and left the scene after exchanging information.
“These collisions show how dangerous collision scenes are to first responders, not only from the smoke, debris, fluids and car parts, but other drivers on the road too.”
“Fortunately, these after collisions did not hurt any first responders on the scene,” Manseau added.
