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One fatality and five injuries on West Coast Road

Car accident and motorcycle crash close Highway 14
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Two young men cry

Car accident and motorcyle crash close highway

Two different vehicle accidents occurred on April 9 on West Coast Road, one resulting in a fatality.

One teen was killed and another three were injured after the stolen vehicle they were driving crashed near Park Isle Marine on West Coast Trail around 10 a.m.

According to a witness report the westbound mid-sized compact vehicle was speeding down the road, lost control and veered into the other lane.

“This guy was going like a rock out of hell,” he said, adding the vehicle nearly hit his motor home.

“My windshield cracked and I got dirt on my windshield from debris,” he said.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Steve Wright said the vehicle then hit a power pole sideways, and flipped over into a ditch upside down. The pole was snapped in half by impact and one passenger was killed.

When emergency crews arrived the driver and front passenger were on the road way.

One man was confirmed dead, and a woman was airlifted to Victoria General Hospital with serious head injuries around 11 a.m. Wright said she is currently in the Intensive Care Unit.

Two other men were taken to hospital via ambulance. Two of the occupants were 18 and two were 15.

Wright said the vehicle, which was a Chevrolet, was reported stolen in the early morning in Sooke.

He could not confirm if all the occupants were from Sooke.

Sooke Fire chief Steve Sorensen said judging by the damage done to the pole, speed may have been a factor.

The driver of the vehicle is in police custody and was to be in court Tuesday, facing charges of criminal negligence causing death, criminal negligence causing bodily harm and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Motorcyclist flies over pick up

Later on around 7:30 p.m. there was a collision involving two motorcyclists and a pick up truck on West Coast Road near Whiffin Spit.

Fire chief Steve Sorensen said one of the cyclists crossed the centre line, hit the front of the Nissan pickup truck, and flew over top, where the motorcycle then “exploded” into a hundred pieces.

The motorist suffered from a broken arm and cuts.

The second motorcyclist then ran into the back of the first motorcycle, sustaining severe road rash.

“They were going too fast,” Sorensen said. “They were both wearing helmets, luckily.”

Both men, in their late 20s, had Alberta license plates.

The people in the pick up truck were not injured.