A passenger has died after a late night collision on the Trans-Canada Highway near Nanaimo Sunday night, and RCMP is looking for another vehicle that was driving in the area at the time.

On Nov. 2 at 10:30 p.m., a black Audi S3 sedan crashed and caught fire on the Trans-Canada Highway near Morden Road.

RCMP is looking for witnesses and dash cam footage “because criminality cannot be ruled out.”

Cpl. Michael McLaughlin with BC Highway Patrol says the Audi left the road and crashed into the median, resulting in the car catching fire.

An 18-year-old passenger in the Audi died at the scene as a result of the fire, and the 19-year-old driver was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“Even before emergency responders arrived, the public was doing their best to put out the fire with whatever extinguishers they could find,” McLaughlin said in a Zoom interview.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to save that passenger, and we have to take this investigation really seriously, if nothing else, to honour that passenger.”

Witnesses who have already spoken with officers say a second dark-coloured car was driving in the area at the time and did not stop when the Audi crashed.

McLaughlin says the investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the crash.

“We can’t rule out anything. It’s entirely possible that criminal behaviour was involved here, whether that’s speed or something else or perhaps dangerous driving, everything is on the table,” he said.

“It’s very early in this investigation, but considering how serious it is, obviously we have to take the investigation very seriously and leave no stone unturned.”

Anyone who witnessed the events leading up to the crash, who has dash camera video or has information about the dark coloured vehicle is asked to call BC Highway Patrol – Duncan at 250-746-2751 and quote file (7001) 2025-2168.

“Witnesses to collisions like this tend to drive away, naturally, that’s what you would expect on the highways,” McLaughlin said.

“But it’s really important that we track those people down, talk to them, get that complete picture of what happened, find some dash camera video in addition to the video that we already have, and hopefully identify that black Honda Civic or similar. That’s going to be really important for this investigation.”