(Credit: Coquihalla Road Reports (And Area), Marcella Ketting)

A number of crashes seen on the Coquihalla south of Merritt this morning, due to icy conditions, appear to be resolving itself.

The highway was closed in both directions between Hope and Merritt at 8:30 a.m. Thursday after a crash involving two semis in the Comstock area.

“One semi going in one direction sort of ended up hitting the median barrier and knocked the median barrier into the other direction. Then, a semi coming the other way hit that barrier,” Dave Duncan, General Manager of Yellowhead Road and Bridge, which is in-charge of the Coquihalla between Merritt and Kamloops, told Radio NL.

Duncan says that crash caused traffic to back up for a while.

“It made it difficult for plows to continue to circulate because the highway was closed and ended up getting icy conditions in that surrounding area that caused a couple of other minor collisions to take place,” he said.

Duncan suspects drivers have been lulled into a sense of security due to a late start to the winter weather.

“I think the November and early December driving conditions are being a little faster than normal, we would normally be into our third or fourth storm cycle of the year by now where we did have that early storm cycle in October and then its really been warm and dry,” he said, noting between three and five centimeters of snow fell on the Coquihalla Thursday morning.

“I think folks are getting used to winter, and then when you get these one to four centimeter snowfalls, sometimes that small amount of snow can really turn to ice pretty quickly.”

There have been numerous other minor accidents reported along the Coquihalla south of Merritt today, but no series injuries have been reported.

“We have had some slippery sections that crews have been addressing this morning but, those slippery conditions can happen quickly and catch people by surprise.”

Drive BC is reporting of icy and slushy conditions on highways across the Kamloops region.