Sea-to-Sky upgrades fail to prevent latest fatality

The death of a Whistler man Thursday night on the Sea-to-Sky Highway occurred despite a costly upgrade of the road intended to help prevent such accidents.

The highway was shut down for three hours following a head-on collision 55 kilometres north of Vancouver that cost the life of Christopher Hauserman.

Hauserman, 40, was driving home to Whistler to attend a company Christmas party shortly after he'd stepped off a flight from London, England, when witnesses say his car veered into the path of a southbound pickup truck.

Hauserman was alone in his car and was declared dead at the scene, while two people in the other vehicle were treated in hospital and released.

Police were awaiting the results of toxicology tests but said alcohol and drugs did not appear to be factors in the crash. They said inattentiveness or fatigue might have been involved.

Between 1998 and 2007, when a $600-million highway improvement project began, 63 people died on the Sea-to-Sky Highway.

No medians at accident site

The twisting road is carved out of the side of the Coast Mountains and is known for landslidesand traffic fatalities.

With the upgrades, 46 kilometres of the 100-kilometre highway now have concrete medians.

Medians might have prevented Thursday's collision but are not a feature of the road at the accident location near Murrin Provincial Park.

As there are no alternative routes allowing vehicles to be re-directed around accident scenes, traffic comes to a halt on the busy highway after serious incidents.

Officials on Friday tried to allay concerns about disruption of traffic flow during the Olympics.

Extra police will be on hand and if there is an accident, investigators would be standing by to respond quickly, CBC News was told.

"What we'll have is additional equipment," said B.C. Transportation Ministry spokesman John Bodnarchuk. "We'll be able to respond quicker with traffic control, to get traffic movement flowing again."

Bodnarchuk said speed limits also would be lowered on the highway during the 2010 Olympics in February.