A Prince Rupert couple killed in a head-on collision near Houston late last year were in a vehicle with "bald, worn out tires," a coroner said in a final report released Thursday.
Driver Barry Gerald Lecuyer, 49, and his wife, passenger Terri Janna Lecuyer, 55, died at the scene on Dec. 29, 2013 when their westbound SUV crossed the centre line and collided with an eastbound pickup truck on Highway 16 about nine kilometres west of the community.
Houston is about 300 kilometres west of Prince George.
In her report, coroner Lynne Hyatt said their 2000 Suzuki Grand Vitara "did not meet the standards set out by the British Columbia Motor Vehicle Act due to bald, worn out tires."
No mechanical deficiencies were found on the Ford F 150 pickup truck they hit.
Hyatt cited the bald tires and the icy road conditions as contributing factors to the incident.
Barry Lecuyer died from multiple blunt force trauma, Hyatt said, while a final determination of Terri Lecuyer's death has not yet been released.
Also, in a separate report released Thursday, coroner Nola Currie said Cody Lee Davenport, 25, had consumed alcohol, MDMA and cocaine prior to getting behind the wheel Nov. 24, 2013 of a pickup truck that slammed into a rock face after losing control on Highway 16 in Prince Rupert.
Davenport, who died at the scene as a result of a ruptured aorta and blunt force trauma, was also not wearing a seat belt at the time, while the truck's passenger was able to self-extricate and sustained only minor injuries, Currie said.
The pavement was damp with recent rainfall.
The deaths, which were ruled accidental, were three of several that occurred between early November 2013 and the end of January 2014 along HIghway 16, which stretches more than a thousand kilometres from Prince Rupert to the B.C.-Alberta border.
Many of them involved collisions between passenger vehicles and larger commercial trucks, often logging trucks or semis pulling trailers. In late January, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Todd Stone raised the winter maintenance classification for Highway 16 to class A partly in answer to the number of collisions and fatalities.
It meant plows and sand trucks took to the roads more quickly and after smaller snowfalls.
The classification for Highway 97 North between Prince George and Chetwynd was also raised to the higher standard.
