UPDATED: Two-car collision temporarily closes Second Avenue

A two-vehicle collision on the corner of Second Ave. and Second St. temporarily shut down westward traffic in the downtown core.

The incident involved two people, both of whom were driving mini vans.

At 2:42 p.m. the RCMP responded to a report of the motor vehicle incident and were accompanied by the Prince Rupert Fire Department and BC Ambulance Service, Gabriel Gravel, RCMP media relations officer, told The Northern View.

“It’s a typical response when you have a motor vehicle accident because you don’t know what type of injury and if there’s going to be spillage or anything like that,” Gravel said.

“What happened is one [vehicle] was at the intersection and at the last minute noticed a pedestrian crossing [and] hit the brakes and the vehicle behind couldn’t react in time. So [they] ended up read-ending the vehicle in front,” he said.

Both drivers were assessed by paramedics at the scene. One person, the driver who rear-ended the vehicle in front, was transferred to hospital as a precautionary measure,Gravel said.

The incident forced traffic to divert onto Third Ave. where a separate fender-bender occurred.

As of 3:20 p.m. Second Ave. has been cleared and traffic has returned to normal.