Abbotsford mom’s quick thinking saves family from worse fate in Coquihalla crash

ABBOTSFORD (NEWS 1130) – An Abbotsford family is sharing a frightening experience as part of the massive crash on the Coquihalla which sent 29 people to hospital.

It was a quick suggestion by a wife to her husband which perhaps saved the family a worse fate. They were driving along Highway 5 when Janice McKeown’s husband hit the brakes upon seeing two buses in the roadway.

Sitting in the passenger seat, McKeown suggested her husband move their car.

“I was concerned that an oncoming vehicle may impact ours. I suggested to my husband that he move the vehicle ahead slightly and to the right side of the bus,” she explains.

“Not 30 seconds after moving our vehicle out of the on-coming traffic’s way, a semi came and struck the back of the bus–we had just been there,” she says. “I’m so thankful that that was not us in between the semi and the bus.”

The family wasn’t totally spared, however. They were hit three times as cars slid all over the icy road.

“I had three hysterical children in the back of the car and I didn’t know if there would be any more impacts. There was narrowing space on the road so we didn’t get out of the vehicle for probably 10 minutes or something like that. Maybe even more.”

McKeown says the car is a total write off but the family didn’t suffer any major injuries.

As for the cause, investigators consider the winter conditions as a major factor.

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