Four people have died and four others have been hurt in a two-car crash, after a car spun out of control on the southern approach to the Patullo Bridge in Surrey.



The RCMP say three people were dead at the scene of the Monday afternoon collision, and the fourth victim died later in hospital.

RCMP Cpl. Roger Morrow says all four were in a Chevy Cavalier that slid out of control over the centre line, slamming into an oncoming Pontiac Grand Am.

He says two of the four – sitting in the back seat – were not wearing their seatbelts.

The four people in the Pontiac escaped with minor injuries. Morrow says they were all wearing seatbelts, and says that likely saved their lives.

No names have been released, as police contact families.

The Patullo Bridge was built in the late 1930s. It carries more than 79,000 vehicles a day over the Fraser River between Surrey and New Westminster.



Eighteen people have now been killed in accidents on the bridge since 1990, most of them in head-on crashes.

In 2004, Bob Behnke launched a memorial campaign for the construction of a median barrier – after his friend, John Heida of Surrey, was killed in a head-on collision.

"The bridge – it's like a loaded gun," said Behnke, adding that safety changes on the bridge can't happen fast enough, because the bridge is "killing people, far too frequently."



TransLink has begun working on a steel and concrete median barrier. But it will be another 18 months before the work is completed.

TransLink maintains the project wouldn't have made any difference to the approach road where Monday's accident happened.

But Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts doesn't think a median is the best solution to the problem of the narrow bridge. "The long-term solution is definitely widening that bridge, or building a new bridge. There's no doubt about that."

Watts says she plans to raise the issue at her next meeting with Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.

with files from Canadian Press