Impaired driver arrested after semi-truck crashes into Highway 1 overpass in North Vancouver
Posted January 8, 2021 10:50 am.
Last Updated January 8, 2021 4:47 pm.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — The driver of a transport truck that went off the road and hit an overpass support structure on Highway 1 early Friday morning has been arrested for impairment, police say.
The crash happened shortly after 4 a.m., North Vancouver Mounties say, on Highway 1 at the Fern Street overpass.
The 47-year-old Surrey man was taken to hospital, but he wasn’t seriously hurt.
“However, officers at the scene developed grounds to arrest that driver for impaired driving and driving while prohibited,” Sgt. Peter DeVries tells NEWS 1130.
No charges have been laid at this point, he adds.
Driver impairment was behind the crash on Hwy. 1 at the Fern St. overpass. Just after 4a, a semi went off the road. The driver, a 47-year-old Surrey man, was treated for minor injuries and has been arrested for impaired driving/driving while prohibited. @NEWS1130/@NEWS1130Traffic
— Sonia Aslam (@SoniaSAslam) January 8, 2021
It took about six hours for the northbound lanes of Highway 1 to reopen after a large amount of absorbent sand was needed to clean up spilled diesel from the crash, and for engineers to determine there weren’t any structural concerns to the overpass.
The Ministry of Transportation says engineers were on scene to assess any structural impacts to the overpass. They have since determined the “damage appears superficial.”
For most of the morning, commuters were dealing with significant delays because of the crash, which was one of two that snarled traffic on the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge into North Vancouver for several hours.
“I’m sure for some people, it was a very, very difficult and unpleasant commute,” DeVries says. “It was bad timing – it was right during the rush hour.”
-with files from Hana Mae Nassar
