South Surrey accident claims five lives

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SURREY (NEWS1130) – Three women and two kids, aged three and five, have been killed after an accident in South Surrey yesterday morning.

Mounties say it appears a white Dodge Caravan was speeding along 32 Avenue when the 46-year-old driver ran a red light and t-boned another vehicle that was travelling north on 176 Street.

All five of the victims were members of the same family.

RCMP Sergeant Dale Carr says this is one of the worst collisions he has attended. “I can tell you, from my experience of 26 years in the RCMP, attending multiple motor vehicle crash, multiple homicides, [this is] one of the most horrific scenes I have ever seen.”

The vehicle that was struck was an import car, but it’s so mangled Mounties can’t tell what make it is.South SUrrey accident The car was ripped in half. All five victims were in the car.

Carr says Mounties are facing the possibility of having to tell family members that an entire family has been wiped out, but they are not sure about the nature of the relationship between the people in the vehicle that was destroyed.

The driver of the minivan has been taken to hospital; he’s in stable condition.

Callers to the newsroom report seeing debris stretching most of the block.

One witness, Fabio, wanted to cry as soon as he got to the scene. “The first lady on the scene… the first witness… one of the bodies landed on her car.”

“She was so strong… I can’t believe how she did that,” he adds.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts came across the accident scene shortly after it happened. “I had gone through the intersection there, and the vehicle was turned upside down.”

She knows the intersection well. “Trucks come down from the border… it’s at the base of the hill. So, a lot of the trucks that do come down that hill, I’ve witnessed them myself go through red lights. They’re going so fast, that they’re not stopping at the red light.”

“I know that it is also very traumatic for our emergency services personnel — the RCMP, firefighters, and paramedics,” she adds.

Watts called the accident “beyond tragic.”

The only survivor is the man who was behind the wheel of the Caravan.

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