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Fatal collision result of medical emergency

A Sicamous man is dead following a single motor-vehicle accident on Highway 1 west of Sicamous.
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Police report a Sicamous man is dead following a single-vehicle accident on the Trans-Canada Highway on Tuesday afternoon, July 11. File photo

A Sicamous man is dead following a single motor-vehicle accident on Highway 1 west of Sicamous.

RCMP and the BC Coroners Service are now investigating the accident, which police believe resulted from a medical emergency.

Sgt. Murray McNeil said police, B.C. Ambulance paramedics and Eagle Valley Rescue Society members responded to the accident involving an eastbound SUV. The accident ccurred approximately three-kilometres west of town at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, July 11.

“Witnesses stated the SUV began to weave in its lane and reduce its speed before it left the road, off-road right into the eastbound ditch,” said McNeil. “It then struck a rock wall and ricocheted back onto the highway where it came to a rest on its side.

At the accident scene, paramedics worked on the 75-year-old-man, the vehicles’ sole occupant, before transporting him to hospital in Salmon Arm where he was pronounced deceased by doctors.

Neither speed nor alcohol are believed to have been factors.

“We believe it was a medical emergency the driver experienced while driving and that was the result,” said McNeil.

An RCMP traffic analyst conducted an investigation at the accident scene, and the BC Coroners Service is now doing its own investigation.

McNeil said the highway was reduced to single-lane, alternating traffic from 3 p.m. to about 7.