Tuesday January 13, 2026 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 6:20 pm PT]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
A crash on the Malahat stretch of Highway 1 on south Vancouver Island on Saturday January 10 resulted in one fatality and three people injured.
As compiled from other news reports in the region and the Shawnigan Lake RCMP news release today, it sounds like a woman in a car heading southbound (toward Victoria) was in the northbound lane where a collision happened with a man driving an SUV northbound (toward Duncan).
The woman driving the southbound car was declared deceased at the scene, says RCMP. Three other people were sent to hospital.
The RCMP says it was a head-on collision. Weather had several periods of heavy rain that afternoon.
Just after 1 pm:
The collision happened just after 1 pm. BC Emergency Health Services (ambulance) received a 911 call reportedly at 1:15 pm.
Apparently the man in the SUV was driving his mother to attend a town hall featuring Pierre Poilievre in Duncan that afternoon, even though she had very recently suffered a stroke.
Crash analysis:
BCHP Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Service (CARS) team has also been deployed to assist with the investigation.
Highway 1 is expected to experience significant delays and will be closed while emergency responders and investigators remain on scene. Motorists are asked to avoid the area if possible and follow direction from traffic control personnel.
The Malahat is notorious for crashes. Over the last several years the BC Ministry of Transportation and Transit has installed median barriers.
Apparently about 60% of the Malahat corridor is median-divided. Saturday’s incident happened at 1200-block of Highway 1, north of Tunnel Hill but south of Mill Bay in a section where there are no median barriers.
The SUV went over the cliff edge and down an embankment. The oncoming car was an EV (yellow hybrid Lexus CT200H) for which the fire it exploded into was challenging for firefighters to put out — evidently chemicals in EV batteries don’t respond to water the way that gasoline engines do and can take longer to burn out.
The EV was left burning in the middle of the road.
Shawnigan Lake RCMP:
Anyone with dashcam video of the incident or who witnessed the accident but have not yet spoke to police is asked to contact Shawnigan Lake RCMP at 250-743-5514 [RCMP File 26-86].
The Malahat corridor carries the traffic of about 25,000 vehicles daily. It is clearly known as a dangerous portion of Highway 1. In addition to curving through mountains and having some steep grades, it is at a higher elevation where roads can become slippery and visibility can become impaired in fog or precipitation.
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NEWS SECTIONS: ROAD CRASHES | SOUTH VANCOUVER ISLAND | TRAFFIC