Vancouver police and firefighters responded to the scene of a fatal crash Wednesday morning that prompted the closure of a section of Northeast 136th Avenue in east Vancouver.
A man driving one of the involved vehicles was pronounced dead at the scene, according to firefighter-paramedic Kevin Stromberg. A woman in a second vehicle was taken to a hospital in stable condition, he said.
Authorities had not yet released the names of the people involved in the crash.
Police told dispatchers at about 7:50 a.m. that they were shutting down the northbound lanes of 136th Avenue, according to emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian. About 10 minutes later, a responder said they had shut down all lanes in both directions between Northeast Fourth and Ninth streets.
The Vancouver Police Department said in a tweet that three vehicles were involved in the crash.
The police department said in a news release later Wednesday that investigators found the driver of a northbound vehicle crossed the center line and hit a southbound vehicle head-on, causing that vehicle to hit a third vehicle.
Fire crews were dispatched to the scene later in the morning to assist, Stromberg said.
C-Tran said in a tweet that Route 80 was on a detour due to the road closure. For most of the day, buses weren’t serving 136th Avenue between Mill Plain Boulevard and Ninth Street. Authorities reopened 136th Avenue shortly after 2 p.m., C-Tran tweeted, at which time Route 80 resumed its regular route.
The police department’s traffic unit is continuing to investigate the cause of the crash.
