Nearly five years after a car crash on Highway 1 in Chilliwack killed three people, the BC Coroners Service will conduct an inquest into the circumstances.
Around 4 a.m. on Dec. 29, 2020, the RCMP says it responded to reports of a driver and vehicle going the wrong way on Highway 1 near Laidlaw — between Chilliwack and Hope.
Mounties in Chilliwack found the car going westbound in the eastbound lanes near Annis Road, and used a spike belt to try to stop the driver.
Related:
But the driver collided with an oncoming vehicle, subsequently killing all of the occupants in both cars.
The victims included 43-year-old Allison Dawn Gilchrist, 29-year-old Hasan Khaled Ayyad, and 35-year-old Gabriel Johnson Choi, a federal corrections officer who was on his way to work in Agassiz at the time of the crash and died the following day.
The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) was called in on the day of the crash to determine whether police actions contributed to the deaths.
An IIO decision, dated February 2022, concluded there were no “reasonable grounds to believe that an officer may have committed an offence” while in pursuit of the vehicle.
The BC Coroners Service says the incident is a matter of public interest.
The inquest, described as a “non-fault-finding public inquiry,” will seek to determine the facts, classify the deaths, make recommendations, and reassure the public that the circumstances of deaths will not be overlooked, concealed or ignored.
“Presiding coroner Carolyn Maxwell and a jury will hear evidence from witnesses under oath to determine the facts surrounding these deaths. The jury will have the opportunity to make recommendations, as outlined above, though the jury must not make any finding of legal responsibility or express any conclusion of law.”
The inquest will begin on Dec. 8 and continue until Dec. 19.
—With files from Renee Bernard