Driver exits Metro Vancouver highway backwards during ice chaos

A driver was filmed exiting an icy Metro Vancouver highway backward Thursday evening as the first snowstorm of the season made roads slick.

An observer filmed a video from the Highway 91 ramp at Westminster Highway in Richmond, where several cars are seen driving out of the highway going the wrong way, with their hazard lights on.

Then, what appears to be a Jeep reverses the entire way up the ramp.

The person recording the video called the drivers exiting the wrong way “idiots,” but some on social media disagreed — saying they’d do the same thing instead of waiting for hours on a blocked highway.

Highway 91 was blocked on Thursday afternoon due to a pileup crash involving at least 25 vehicles. Webcam photos from the highway showed it completely stopped.

Highway 91 at Fraserwood Way, on the East-West Connector, looking east. (DriveBC)

Darren Ell, general manager of Mainroad Lower Mainland, tells Daily Hive Richmond and Delta are always the busiest areas for the highway contractor to maintain. He said salt and brine trucks were out, but the snow came down hard and fast and stuck to the road.

“With congestion, our trucks are travelling the same speed as the cars and they can’t get through. If there’s an accident, they can’t get through,” he said. “So there was an accident last night on the east-west connector and some long, long backups ensued. Once that’s cleared, we can get the trucks back out there.”

Luckily, Ell says the roads are in better shape now. Highways in the region have been salted and plowed, and a dry forecast over the next several days means they should stay that way.