Police seek witnesses after two die in North Okanagan hit-and-run

Two people are dead after a head-on collision between two pickups near Armstrong and police need help piecing together what happened.

A driver and passenger from a truck driving into opposing traffic initially fled the scene one foot, but a man believed to be the driver was arrested the next day, according to BC Highway Patrol.

Police said the vehicles collided on Highway 97A just outside Spallumcheen where a 19-year-old Vernon man and a 20-year-old Coldstream man were killed around 1:30 a.m., July 12.

“Witness reports say that a 2009 GMC Sierra with lifted suspension and a tidy tank in the bed was driving the wrong way on the divided highway prior to the fatal collision,” police spokesperson Cpl. Michael McLaughlin said in the release.

The other truck, a tan-coloured Chevrolet, had four occupants. Two of them died in the hit-and-run and police did not provide an update on the survivors’ injuries.

Police have a 30-year-old Armstrong man in custody after both occupants of the black truck left without identifying themselves to witnesses or police.

It’s not clear how long the black truck was heading the wrong way, but police are looking for witnesses who may have seen it before the collision.

“There may be people who had a near-miss with the black GMC Sierra who have not yet spoken to police. We need to speak to those people, and dash-camera video would be very useful.”

Anyone who witnessed the minutes leading up to the crash, or who has dash-camera video, can contact BC Highway Patrol at 250-828-3184.