Two independent collisions minutes apart resulted in the death of two pedestrians in Merritt Friday night.
At 8:18 pm on Oct. 10, Merritt officers responded to a report of a pedestrian having been struck by a vehicle along Hwy 5 between exit 286 and 290.
“When officers attended, they located a deceased male who had been hit by an oncoming vehicle,” wrote the RCMP.
“The vehicle (was) occupied (by) a family en route to the Lower Mainland for the weekend.”
The driver of the vehicle remained on scene and has fully cooperated with the police investigation.
At 8:25 pm, while a Merritt officer was en route to the collision on Hwy 5, the officer came across a pedestrian who had been struck by a vehicle at 2702 Nicola Avenue.
“Unfortunately, the struck pedestrian was also located on the roadway, deceased,” explained the RCMP.
“The vehicle was occupied by a single driver. They remained on scene and have been fully cooperative with the police investigation.”
The RCMP have confirmed that neither collision had any criminal element and both were independent of each other.
"Two very tragic occurrences occurred within minutes of one another,” said Cst. Blake Chursinoff of the Merritt RCMP.
“The evidence states that both of these collisions occurred independently and are not connected in any way. At this time, we are thinking of the families of the two deceased pedestrians, and also each of the drivers and families who found themselves involved in such a tragic incident on Friday night.”
