One man is dead and three people are in hospital after a high-speed head-on crash in Burnaby, B.C., that police believe was caused by a street race.
Witnesses told police that a red sports car and a black Dodge Viper were racing along the Lougheed Highway late Sunday night at speeds of nearly 130 kilometres an hour.
RCMP Cpl. Pierre Lemaitre said witnesses saw the two vehicles racing in the westbound lanes of the highway when one of the cars crossed the centre line.
"The Viper's driver, a 38-year-old Coquitlam resident, appears to have lost control, struck the centre median, and his vehicle collided with three eastbound vehicles," Lemaitre said.
That driver, Igor Shaveyko, died at the scene. The occupants of the three other vehicles his car hit are being treated in Royal Columbian and Burnaby hospitals.
Lemaitre said investigators are searching for the driver of the other racing car, who was seen talking on his cellphone just before the crash.
"One of the unbelievable facts is that some of the witnesses have told us that the driver of the red vehicle – we still don't know who that person is because the vehicle left the scene – was apparently seen speaking on a cellphone prior to the collision."