MAPLE RIDGE (NEWS1130) – Mounties in Maple Ridge are investigating a bizarre series of events that have left a cyclist dead and a driver in hospital.

It happened on Dewdney Trunk Road between 240th and 244th Avenues at about 2:40 a.m. today. A police officer noticed a car speeding by in the opposite direction, and did a U-turn to go after it.

By the time he caught up to the Kia, it had spun out, flipped over, and was on fire. The officer then got out a fire extinguisher to put out the flames.

CityTV reporter Greg Harper tells us the driver of that car is now in hospital, and quite possibly, in a lot of trouble. “She’s under investigation for driving under the influence.”

“It was sometime after that, that the officer realized there was more to it; that this woman had actually hit a cyclist and this cyclist was killed in the collision,” he explains.

The driver was the only person in the car.

That stretch of Dewdney Trunk Road was closed for several hours, but has re-opened to traffic.