If it wasn’t for the bravery and quick thinking of passers-by, a vehicle accident on the Sea to Sky Highway last weekend could have claimed more lives, police said.
Four people were still in hospital on Tuesday (June 10) after a deadly vehicle accident closed Highway 99 on Saturday (June 7), Squamish RCMP Sgt. Wayne Pride told the Squamish Chief.
One person was dead and four people were rushed to hospital when a vehicle veered off the road near the Garibaldi salt shed just before 1 p.m. The car burst into flames, witnesses reported to media. People tried to pull the passengers out of the fire, breaking windows in the process, Pride said.
“If not for those people that stopped before the police arrived, there would likely be more fatalities,” he said.
Two people were airlifted to Vancouver, including a child to the B.C. Children’s Hospital. The remaining passengers were taken to Squamish General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. As of Tuesday, Squamish RCMP had not received updates on the victims’ conditions.
“The specialized investigation unit came up to investigate the scene,” Pride said.
There was no indication that drugs or alcohol were a factor in the single-vehicle accident.
“It just looks like a really tragic accident in which a car went straight off the road,” Pride said.
On Thursday, June 12, the BC Coroners Service confirmed the man that died in the crash was 81-year-old Chee Hung Wong. He was a resident of Hong Kong.
Wong was a rear-seat passenger in the car. He was deceased at the scene.
