Highway 1 motorists heading into the Tri-Cities faced yet another lengthy delay this morning (Feb. 15).
A four-vehicle collision in Coquitlam just west of the Port Mann Bridge before 6 a.m. resulted in major congestion for the remainder of the morning commute and pushed traffic as far back as Langley for several hours.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported from the incident, BC Highway Patrol (BCHP) spokesperson Const. Mike Moore confirmed to the Tri-City News.
"No injuries, public property damage or criminality — it was a straight up rear-ender," he added, noting no charges were issued and the parties involved were ultimately referred to ICBC.
Moore said three of the four vehicles involved needed to be towed, and were done so within an hour of the incident.
According to DriveBC, the incident, which took place at United Boulevard near the Cape Horn exchange, blocked the westbound HOV and left lanes while emergency crews worked to get the vehicles off the road as soon as possible.
The lanes reopened around 7:15 a.m., but traffic, at one point, was backed up to 200 Street in Langley, resulting in an extra hour commute for drivers to get to the Tri-Cities or Metro Vancouver.
This was the second multi-vehicle collision that took place on or near the Port Mann Bridge in as many days.
Around 7 a.m. on Tuesday (Feb. 14), a five-vehicle pile-up in the left lane on the Coquitlam side of the Highway 1 bridge caused major congestion and had traffic crawling for several hours from as far back as the 176 Street/Highway 15 exit in Surrey.
There were no injuries reported from the incident and two of the vehicles needed to be towed. The road was cleared at around 8 a.m.
Bridge woes
Officials are continuing to remind drivers to slow down and leave plenty of space between yourself and the vehicle ahead of you.
DriveBC is asking commuters, once more, to use caution when travelling on highways as posted speed limits are for ideal conditions.
ICBC's latest data showed there were 1,021 crashes in the through lanes at the west end of the Port Mann Bridge reported between 2017 and 2021 — each either led to injury, minor or fatal, and/or property damage.
The provincial corporation added there were 799 collisions in the Coquitlam and Surrey lanes of the bridge in that same span.
In the Lower Mainland, ICBC said speed was the major contributing factor to 32 fatal crashes reported in 2021.
As well, 43 others that were caused by high-risk driving, which is defined as either following too closely, improper passing and speed, failing to yield a right of way or ignoring a traffic control device.
