Large parts of Richmond were at a standstill during Wednesday evening’s rush-hour after a fatal, morning truck crash in Delta just south of the Massey Tunnel.
Most the major routes heading east or south out of the city were crawling, if moving at all, with sections of Highway 99 shut down for most of Wednesday.
Traffic was directed around the crash scene — in the southbound lane, just south of Highway 17A — for kilometres in either direction in a series of shifting closures.
Emergency crews were called out shortly before 9 a.m. to Highway 99 near Highway 17A, where a southbound gravel truck pulling a trailer lost control, drove through a concrete barrier, flipped onto its side and caught fire, Mounties said.
As the truck slid into the northbound fast lane, it slammed into a pair of vehicles, RCMP spokesman Const. Mike Moore said. After the commercial truck and trailer came to a stop, witnesses at the scene tried to pull its trapped driver out of the cab, which was by that point fully engulfed in flames, Moore said.
Despite their efforts, the driver died.
