Nanaimo records second backroad death, as ATV rider collides with deer

NANAIMO, B.C. – A 48-year-old Nanaimo, B.C., man has been killed in an ATV accident, the second fatal off-road crash in the Nanaimo area in one week.

RCMP in the Vancouver Island city say the man likely hit a deer at around 8:30 p.m. on March 24, as he rode a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle on a BC Hydro service road.

Friends riding with the victim say they found the crash scene minutes after the man raced ahead of them on the rural access road, roughly 10 kilometres southwest of Nanaimo.

The carcass of a deer was spotted not far from the site where the man suffered critical injuries after being hurled into the bush when his quad veered off the road.

The victim, who won’t be identified, was wearing a helmet but died in hospital shortly after the crash.

In an unrelated incident, a 55-year-old Nanaimo man was killed March 17 when his dirt-bike crashed on a logging road near Nanoose Bay, about 25-kilometres north of Nanaimo. (CKAY)