One person is in hospital following a crash on South Island Highway near Buckley Bay.
A man suffered serious injuries around 11 a.m. Sunday when the motorcycle he was driving crashed into the side of a full-size van on Highway 19A, also known as the South Island Highway, about one kilometre north of the Buckley Bay ferry.
Union Bay fire chief Ian Ham said the motorcycle pulled out to pass a line of cars and t-boned a van that turned left in front of them.
“We heard a motorcycle accelerating and then a big bang and then ran out to see what had happened,” said Richard Miranda who lives nearby.
“He was moaning in pain and he was walking but he was completely confused,” said Miranda. “He was just going in circles. He couldn’t talk, his face started swelling right up.”
At the scene of a serious motorcycle crash on Hwy19a just north of #BuckleyBay. The lone person on it has been airlifted from the scene with serious injuries. @CHEK_News pic.twitter.com/fVtYJkRXTb
— Dean Stoltz (@deanstoltzchek) July 25, 2021
Firefighters with the Union Bay Fire Department attended the scene and the lone occupant of the motorcycle.
BCEHS paramedics stabilized the man before he was put into an air ambulance and flown to a hospital for treatment.
People who live along the stretch of Highway 19A that runs along the coast from Fanny Bay to Courtenay say it’s popular with motorcyclists and others who speed there.
“In the summertime, it seems that this just turns into a playground and everybody speeds around here. We can hear them and there’s a lot of speed, maybe a lot of people trying to get to the ferry. It gets a little chaotic here,” added Miranda.
Police have not said if speed or impairment of any kind were factors in the crash.
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Dean Stoltz
