Emergency crews were called to a fatal crash on the highway in Chase River in Nanaimo today.

The six-vehicle crash happened at about 11:30 a.m. at the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway, Maki Road and Tenth Street, in the southbound lanes. Nanaimo RCMP said it appears a 73-year-old driver went into medical distress while driving southbound on the highway, causing the collisions.

The driver鈥檚 wife was injured in the incident and was transported to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.

鈥淲e have an elderly male who was driving, with a female passenger, southbound on TCH,鈥� said RCMP Cpl. Virgil Bitz. 鈥淲e believe it to be a medical event that occurred up the road, between the lights at Haliburton [Street]. The unresponsive male behind the wheel came south at a high rate of speed.鈥�

Bitz said three other vehicles, stopped at the traffic lights at the Trans-Canada, Maki Road and Tenth Street intersection, were struck by the stricken man鈥檚 car, which also rear-ended a pickup truck and forced it into the vehicle in front of it, resulting in a six-vehicle collision. Three vehicles were drivable, but three others had to be towed from the scene.

鈥淸Emergency Health Services] provided emergency life-saving medical treatment to the driver. Unfortunately, he was declared deceased 鈥� a 73-year-old male and the female passenger is believed to be his wife,鈥� Bitz said.

The corporal said the female passenger was conscious and moving when she was helped by ambulance paramedics, but he was not aware of the nature of her injuries. No injuries among the occupants of the other vehicles involved were reported.

Southbound lanes of the highway were closed for more than an hour at the scene of the crash, with traffic detoured. RCMP traffic analysts were not called to the scene, Bitz said, because police have a witness to a 鈥渃ollapse medical event鈥� so the incident was treated as a sudden death and not a motor vehicle fatality.

According to Drive B.C., the scene was cleared and the highway reopened at about 2:20 p.m.

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