One man is dead following a multi-vehicle collision that shut down the Cut for several hours Monday afternoon.
The first 911 calls came in at 3:45 p.m. reporting a crash just north of the Mountain Highway overpass.
“There was one fatality and it’s an ongoing investigation,” said Cpl. Richard De Jong, North Vancouver RCMP spokesman. “We are looking for any other witnesses.”
First responders said the driver of a black Mustang travelling up the Cut collided with the concrete barrier, sending the vehicle sliding into oncoming traffic. It struck a white van coming east, down the Cut and continued to slide, hitting a second vehicle before ricocheting back into the westbound lanes.
Firefighters from the City and District of North Vancouver were tasked with the rescue attempt, requiring the Jaws of Life to pry open the van.
‘When the crews arrive, basically everybody on the freeway had stopped, both (westbound) and (eastbound),” said district assistant fire chief Jim Bonneville. “They had to extricate a fellow out of the first vehicle. It was kind of jammed in there and they had to cut a bunch of stuff away and get him out.”
The driver of the white van, a 63-year-old Vancouver man, died of his injuries.
Firefighters at the scene described the wreck of the Mustang as a “ball of metal” but amazingly, the driver and passengers were not injured.
Exactly what led to the collision, though, isn’t clear. Port Mann Freeway Patrol, which has jurisdiction over the Highway 1 as far as the Capilano River, has not responded to a request for an interview.
The westbound lanes were closed by the Integrated Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Service until 8 p.m. Single-lane eastbound traffic opened within an hour.
