A man was airlifted to hospital after a single-vehicle accident on the Inland Island Highway north of Exit 51 near Parksville on Friday.
The Errington Volunteer Fire Department, with assistance from the Parksville Fire Department, were dispatched to the scene at approximately 10 a.m. Fire chief Troy Bater said the accident happened due to the driver’s medical condition.
Oceanside RCMP and BC Ambulance were also at scene.
Jesse Foreman of the Oceanside RCMP said the driver is a 76-year-old man from Parksville. According to witnesses at the scene, Foreman said, they observed the man’s SUV swerving and travelling erratically. The vehicle was travelling north when it went across the grassy median into the southbound lane before hitting cement barriers on the road.
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Traffic heading towards Nanaimo was disrupted as only one lane was kept open.
Foreman said they’re not sure what the medical distress the man had but he had to be stabilized. He was driven to the scale station near Parksville where the Air Ambulance landed to pick up him up and flew him to hospital in Victoria.
“We had to land the helicopter at the scale station as we didn’t want to close the road down,” said Bater.
There are no update on the man’s condition at this time.
— NEWS Staff, submitted
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