Update:

In a news release Friday, Port Alberni RCMP said that one person has died following a rollover crash off of a steep embankment Thursday evening.

According to RCMP, a Jeep SUV was travelling on Cameron Main when it may have come across poor road conditions, causing it to roll over and drop approximately 250 feet down a steep embankment.

Police say that there were seven occupants in the vehicle, and that four of them had made their way up to the road before emergency crews arrived.

The three other passengers of the vehicle were still located down the embankment near the crash site, with two of them suffering from serious injuries. Port Alberni Fire Department and search and rescue teams then lifted the three individuals up from the steep embankment, where one man was transported to West Coast General Hospital before being airlifted to a Victoria hospital.

The 24-year-old Port Alberni man has since succumbed to his injuries, say police.

Mounties say that investigators from the Vancouver Island Integrated Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Services are examining the incident and that the driver of the vehicle is cooperating with police. RCMP do not believe that alcohol was a factor.

The BC Coroners Service is now in its early stages of its investigation.

Earlier:

VICTORIA – Seven people were rescued from a steep embankment in Port Alberni after a rollover incident sent a vehicle tumbling more than 100 feet on Thursday evening.

According to the Port Alberni Fire Department, emergency crews were called to the Cameron Mainline area near Bainbridge Main for reports of a single vehicle rollover incident at approximately midnight.

Port Alberni Deputy Fire Chief Wes Patterson says that once crews arrived on the scene, they found RCMP officers already assisting four passengers who had made their way up the embankment onto a road.

From the road, fire crews could the see two more passengers near the crashed vehicle, which was roughly 150 feet down the embankment.

"One [passenger had] significant injuries and the other had stayed with that person as a comfort and a monitor," said Patterson. 

Patterson adds that a third person was then located roughly 50 feet away from the crashed vehicle with the help of a police service dog.

"There was indication of a third person who they hadn't found yet who turned out to be another 50 feet down," said Patterson. "So almost 200 feet down the bank."

Rescue teams then determined that the last person found needed to be prioritized for medical treatment, and worked to bring the injured individual up the embankment. Patterson says that rope systems and a basket stretcher were used to bring them back onto the street before crews worked to bring the two remaining passengers up from the crash site. 

"It was significant in that it was very steep," said Patterson. "There was brush throughout the bank and it was frozen and very slippery throughout." 

Besides RCMP and the fire department, Port Alberni search and rescue teams and ambulances services assisted in the rescue.