Mounties investigating collision involving police car
One lane on the Malahat Drive was closed for five hours Thursday morning after a police car collided with a Volvo station wagon and tractor-trailer.
No one was seriously injured in the crash, and a police investigation is underway.
What's known right now is the collision occurred in the Malahat's southbound lane one kilometre south of the Mill Bay turn-off near Bamberton.
A marked Ford Crown Victoria RCMP police car, a 1999 Volvo wagon, and a tractor-trailer unit, crashed shortly after 4 a.m.
"The police car, operated by a 40-year-old West Shore RCMP officer, with three years of service, was travelling northbound on the highway with lights and siren activated," an RCMP media release states. "The officer was en route to back-up fellow officers at a high priority call in Shawnigan Lake, involving a suicidal man."
Early indications, police say, suggest the police vehicle crossed the centre line and struck the southbound Volvo, which in turn struck the tractor-trailer unit travelling beside it.
"It was raining and windy at the time of the collision," police say. "Both the Volvo and police car sustained significant damage. The tractor-trailer unit sustained minor damage."
The Volvo's 37-year-old driver, meanwhile, was the vehicle's sole occupant and reported minor soft-tissue injuries. He was examined by B.C. Ambulance Service paramedics on scene and released. The driver of the tractor-trailer and the police officer were not injured.
One south-bound lane of the Malahat was closed between 4 and 9:15 a.m. as officials with South Island Traffic Services and a collision analyst/reconstructionist conducted a collision investigation.
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