A 33-year-old Ontario woman is dead after a tractor-trailer crashed on the Trans-Canada Highway near Albert Canyon early Monday morning.
The accident happened at around 4:30 a.m. on Monday, May 7 when the westbound tractor-trailer went off the road and crashed into a rock face.
The male driver of the truck was rushed to Queen Victoria Hospital in Revelstoke with serious injuries. Later that morning, when tow trucks pulled the truck from the ditch, the woman was discovered dead underneath the wreckage.
When the Times Review first learned of the incident, RMCP reported that only one person was involved. No one knew there was a woman in the tractor until it was removed from the ditch, Staff-Sgt. Jacquie Olsen said.
"There was no indication there was another person in the vehicle," she said, adding that the driver was not able to speak when he was treated at the scene.
The driver was taken to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.
Olsen said Monday morning the accident will likely be attributed to fatigue but the investigation is ongoing.
"There's no indication at the scene that there's any reason for him to have gone off the road but fatigue," she said.
The accident happened on a curved section of two-lane highway. Road conditions are not considered a factor in the crash.
Mike Denharen, a former co-worker of the two victims, said they had just started a long-haul trucking business and this was their first trip across the country to British Columbia.
"We just saw both of them on Friday," he said. "We knew they were leaving on Saturday for their first trip to B.C. It's horrible that it happened. We're just trying to pull all the pieces together."