A Burns Lake woman was "heavily intoxicated with alcohol" when her vehicle slammed into a fully-loaded tractor-trailer on a snow-covered Highway 16 last winter, a coroner has said.
Leigh St. Jean, 43, died at the scene on Nov. 20, 2013.
In a report released Friday, coroner Lynne Hyatt said St. Jean was heading east when, at about 10:20 p.m., her 2001 Kia crossed the centreline and into the path of a 2014 Freightliner about four kilometres east of Burns Lake.
Her vehicle was struck on the passenger side, immediately sparking a fire that involved both vehicles. St. Jean was wearing a seatbelt but was thrown from the vehicle.
Hyatt said the road was covered in snow and ice and it was completely dark out with no lighting or illumination along that stretch.
She said the road conditions were a contributing factor to the death as were the heavy level of intoxication with alcohol and recent use of cannabis, which were uncovered in toxicology tests.
Hyatt ruled the death accidental and made no recommendations.
The death was one 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.
