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Cars heading to Cypress Mountain need winter tires: West Van police

West Vancouver police are warning drivers to make sure they have winter tires if they’re heading up the mountain, after two accidents on the road to Cypress on Tuesday. In the first accident around 4:30 p.m.
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West Vancouver police are warning drivers to make sure they have winter tires if they’re heading up the mountain, after two accidents on the road to Cypress on Tuesday.

In the first accident around 4:30 p.m., a 36-year-old Vancouver woman heading north on Cypress Bowl Road in a 1999 Nissan Pathfinder lost control in slippery road conditions and collided with a southbound 2015 Subaru SVX driven by a 23-year-old Vancouver man. The Subaru came to rest on its side in the ditch and the driver was taken to hospital for assessment of a minor leg injury. Damage to the vehicles was estimated at $20,000 for the Subaru and $10,000 for the Nissan.

A second accident on that road during Tuesday’s snowfall happened just before 8 p.m. when a southbound BMW X5 carrying a family of four from Burnaby crashed into the ditch in the 3900 block of Cypress Bowl Road.

There were no injuries, but damage to the vehicle was estimated at about $10,000. In that case, the car did not have winter tires.

Const. Jeff Palmer of the West Vancouver Police Department said some drivers of SUVs with all-wheel drive have the mistaken impression the type of tire they have doesn’t matter. “Getting up the hill is one thing,” he said. But coming down, “You have the same braking capacity as any other vehicle.”

That’s where winter tires come in, he added.