An 81-year-old Halfmoon Bay woman died Wednesday, Dec. 16 after the car she was driving veered off Highway 101 near Trout Lake in Halfmoon Bay.
The woman’s passenger – her 12-year-old grandson from Toronto – was taken to Sechelt Hospital, then airlifted to Children’s Hospital in critical condition, but is expected to make a full recovery from the head injuries he received, Sunshine Coast RCMP said.
Emergency personnel were called to the accident scene shortly before 5:30 p.m. and found a Toyota Prius about 10 metres down an embankment off the highway. The woman was deceased at the scene.
Police said the vehicle appeared to have been travelling north on the highway when it veered across the oncoming lane and travelled down the embankment, before colliding with a tree. No cause has yet been determined. The Lower Mainland’s Integrated Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Service (ICARS) will be examining the vehicle to attempt to identify or rule out possible causes.
Police are asking anyone who witnessed the collision or has any information that could assist the investigation, and has not yet spoken with police, to call Sunshine Coast RCMP at 604-885-2266 and cite file number 15-8611.
“You never want to hear that a serious or fatal collision has occurred, but when there is a child involved, it becomes all the more tragic,” said Const. Harrison Mohr, media relations officer with Sunshine Coast RCMP.
“Our thoughts go out to the family of the boy and his grandmother, and we wish the boy a full and speedy recovery.”
Sunshine Coast Highway was closed for about two and a half hours Wednesday night while police investigated the collision.
