Vehicle crashes through 2nd-storey parkade on UBC campus: Vancouver Fire Rescue
Person was removed from the vehicle by afternoon, says fire rescue spokesperson
UPDATE — Jan. 18, 2024: RCMP say the driver died at the scene and investigators are still working to determine what caused the crash.
First responders spent hours rescuing a person from inside a precariously-pinned vehicle after it crashed through a parking garage at the University of British Columbia's Vancouver campus on Wednesday.
Vancouver Fire Rescue Services spokesperson Matthew Trudeau said crews were called to the intersection of Wesbrook Mall and Thunderbird Boulevard just after 9:30 a.m.
Technical and heavy rescue teams were soon called in to assist with what Trudeau called a "complex" rescue.
According to Trudeau, the vehicle fell to ground level after crashing through a concrete wall on the second storey of the parkade. The lone occupant remained trapped inside the nose-down facing vehicle for hours while crews worked cautiously in heavy snowfall to free them.
Hours later, Trudeau said the occupant was removed from the vehicle.
Trudeau said the complexity of the rescue was due to serious structural concerns, the position of the car, and the location of an energized battery bank structure underneath the vehicle.
He told CBC News around 11:30 a.m. crews were "working as quick as we can to get the person out," and that the first priority during the rescue was the safety of the vehicle occupant and rescue crews.
He said because of how the vehicle landed, part of the concrete structure was hanging loose off the side of the building, posing a risk.
"We don't want anything to fall as we move the car or cut open doors," Trudeau said Wednesday morning.
At 1:30 p.m., Vancouver Fire Rescue Services said via social media that crews were no longer at the scene.
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Breaking?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Breaking</a>: 10 VFRS apparatus on scene on the 6000 Block of Thunderbird Blvd for a vehicle that went through a 2nd storey parkade to the ground. Heavy Rescue and Technical Rescue teams working to extricate a patient. Media contact: PIO only. <a href="https://t.co/l9yvEkyGT8">pic.twitter.com/l9yvEkyGT8</a>
—@VanFireRescueIn an email to CBC News around 4:30 p.m., Trudeau said crews "extricated one person from the vehicle."
No information about the person in the vehicle has been provided to CBC News, as Trudeau said those details were still being gathered.
With files from Renée Lukacs