A North Vancouver man who was reaching for his cellphone caused a four-car pileup on the Mount Seymour Parkway Thursday afternoon.
Luckily nobody was hurt in the accident, although two vehicles — a 2005 Chevrolet Uplander van and 2010 Hyundai — were destroyed and had to be towed away.
The accident happened when a 35-year-old man driving the van along Mount Seymour Parkway near Apex Avenue reached for his cellphone, which had fallen into the centre console of his vehicle, said Cpl. Richard De Jong, spokesman for the North Vancouver RCMP.
The momentary distraction caused the driver to swerve right and crash into a parked vehicle. That caused a chain reaction involving two other parked vehicles.
In addition to the van and the Hyundai, two other vehicles were damaged.
De Jong said the driver was lucky, noting consequences could have been much more serious if he had swerved left instead — into traffic.
De Jong said the driver — who told police he’d been reaching for the phone — was handed a $368 ticket for driving without due care and attention.
He wasn’t ticketed for using his cellphone while driving, said De Jong. “He was only reaching for it. He wasn’t using it.”
De Jong said the latest pileup is “just another striking reminder not to engage with your cellphone while driving.”
