UPDATE: 3 people injured on Coq car crash; 2 critically

KAMLOOPS – A car crash on Highway 5 north of Merritt sent three people to hospital and slowed southbound traffic for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon.

Two were transported by air ambulance to Royal Inland Hospital in critical condition, while the third person had non-life threatening injuries and was taken hospital in Kamloops by ground ambulance, according to B.C. Ambulance.

Drive B.C. says the crash closed a single lane about seven kilometres south of the Helmer Road exit and 19 km north of Merritt.

The slow lane was closed for vehicle recovery, according to a tweet by VSA Highway Maintenance.

No word yet from the RCMP on the number of vehicles involved in the crash.

The route fully reopened to traffic at about 2:15 p.m.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca or call 250-491-0331. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

— This story was updated at 3:29 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014 to include new information about injuries from B.C. Ambulance.