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UPDATE: Three sent to hospital after crash near Taylor River Bridge

Highway 4 was closed in both directions for approximately two and a half hours
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An accident has occurred near the Taylor River Bridge on Highway 4. KARLY BLATS PHOTO

Three people were transported to the hospital after a vehicle collision on Pacific Rim Highway (Hwy 4) about three kilometres west of the Taylor River viewpoint.

A silver-coloured Dodge Ram pickup truck was travelling westbound in a construction zone when the driver proceeded to pass some vehicles. The driver, a 74-year-old man from Tofino, was passing vehicles in the eastbound lane when a westbound septic truck with its turn signal on started to make a left turn off the highway immediately in front of him.

This resulted in the Dodge pickup truck colliding at full speed with the driver’s door of the septic truck, then continuing on into a nearby ditch where it rolled onto its side, trapping its driver. Several passersby stopped to render assistance, including some off duty Shawnigan Lake fire fighters and a doctor. The Dodge was secured from further movement and its driver extricated by those assisting on scene.

Highway 4 was closed in both directions for approximately two and half hours as emergency personnel attended to the crash and the vehicles towed away.

Two of the three people in the Dodge pickup and the driver of the septic truck received serious non-life threatening injuries in the crash and were taken to hospital by ambulance.

The collision is still under investigation. Anyone who may have witnessed the crash, or the events leading up to it, is asked to contact Cst. Wasylien of the Port Alberni RCMP at 250-723-2424.

The BC Emergency Health Services state in a tweet that they responded to a rollover on Hwy 4 near Taylor River Bridge where paramedics cared for and transported four patients from the scene.