Sea to Sky Highway improvements called for after weekend accident stranded motorists for hours

A crash shut down the Sea to Sky Highway near Lions Bay for eight hours. Many motorists were stranded overnight. Photo by Brittany Michalchuk /Handout

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After drivers were stranded for eight hours on the Sea to Sky Highway following a motorcycle fatality last Sunday, one thing is certain: Getting stuck on that highway during a prolonged investigation is not just uncomfortable, it is unsafe.

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Matthew Paugh, operations manager for Squamish Connector shuttle bus, fielded 100 requests for places to stay from stranded motorists, hosted four people overnight in his Squamish home, and one of his drivers slept in the office.

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“People need water, they need food, medication, insulin,” said Paugh.

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Experts are calling for change that would allow traffic to keep flowing, even when a detailed police investigation is required.

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The Sea to Sky Highway, the only corridor between Vancouver and Whistler, lacks sufficient refuge and diversion areas to allow for traffic turnarounds, according to Gargoum Suliman, a transportation engineer and UBC assistant professor.

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The highway could be widened, but the geography presents significant constraints, said Suliman. “There are some areas where it is not structurally sound to cut through the mountain.”

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The route from Horseshoe Bay to Whistler was significantly overhauled in 2009, ahead of the 2010 Olympics. The $600 million project added 71 kilometres of new passing lanes and dozens of new bridges.

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The Sea to Sky Highway was shut down in both directions for more than eight hours on July 5, 2026, stranding motorists. Photo by Jag Walia

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In April 2026, the Insurance Corp. of B.C. provided Postmedia with data showing there had been 167 crashes between Vancouver and Whistler in 2024, up from 156 in 2021, with about half of them leading to injury or death. There were 396 unplanned road closures during the five-year period from 2011 to 2016. Ten per cent of those were full closures.

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When a serious injury or fatality occurs, a detailed investigation is required.

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“It is considered a crime scene when someone is killed, and locations are treated as such in those cases,” said Suliman.

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Suliman believes the use of lidar technology — a 3D laser that creates a full-dimensional model of the scene — could speed up investigations so lanes could be cleared.

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But RCMP Cpl. Michael McLaughlin, spokesperson for the RCMP’s highway patrol, said technology gaps are not contributing to delays in complex fatality investigations, and that the operational debrief following this accident will discuss road closures, policy for dealing with traffic delays, and whether more “efficiencies” can be applied for future serious highway shutdowns.

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The Independent Investigations Office of B.C., which investigates “incidents of death or serious harm that may have been the result of the actions or inactions of a police officer,” sent officials to the scene on Sunday. B.C. RCMP said one of their highway patrol officers conducting speed enforcement “left their position along the highway and moments later located one of the motorcyclists who was involved in a collision with a recreational vehicle.”