Semi collides head-on with minivan carrying family; vehicle rolls over on Good Samaritan, as Trans Canada detour increases traffic volumes on Highway 93
Steve Hubrecht
[email protected]
The closure of the TransCanada Highway for upgrades and the subsequent detouring of traffic through the Columbia Valley has resulted in a spate of traffic accidents occurring here in the last month.
The past four weeks have seen TransCanada traffic between Castle Junction and Golden rerouted south on Highway 93 to Radium and then north up to Golden on Highway 95, while crews work to ‘twin’ the TransCanada (i.e. make it two lanes in each direction). The closure and detour have resulted in a huge surge in traffic volumes on Highway 93 and Highway 95, to levels quite possibly never before seen in the Columbia Valley. There has been a corresponding increase in traffic accidents, a trend astute Pioneer readers will have noticed in the larger-than-normal number of motor vehicle incidents detailed in the Pioneer’s page four RCMP Report. In last week’s (May 6) edition of the Pioneer, for instance, traffic accidents accounted for the entire report, and all but one of these accidents occurred on the parts of Highway 93 and Highway 95 serving as the TransCanada detour.
Since that report, two more particularly horrific incidents have occurred, underscoring the dangers that can arise from funnelling TransCanada levels of vehicles onto highways not necessarily designed to handle the TransCanada traffic volumes.
The first incident occurred on Thursday, May 6 and involved a crashed vehicle — which had gone over an embankment — shift and roll over a passing motorist who had stopped to help. The accident happened after 6 p.m. A green Chevrolet Tahoe was heading west through Kootenay National Park when, not far from the Sinclair Creek brake check (about 8 kilometres east of Radium Hot Springs), the driver lost control, veered into the oncoming lane, spun and then went down an embankment.
“A Good Samaritan, who had been travelling on the highway in the same direction, immediately jumped into action and climbed down the 150-foot embankment in an attempt to extricate the driver trapped inside,” said BC RCMP southeast district spokesperson Corporal Jesse O’Donaghey in a press release. “Without warning, onlookers witnessed as the wreckage shifted and suddenly rolled onto the Good Samaritan, seriously injuring him. Fire crews worked quickly to perform a long line rescue to raise both the injured driver and the Good Samaritan to safety.”
STARS Air Ambulance airlifted the injured Good Samaritan to Alberta for enhanced medical care. “At last word the 46-year-old man, who just celebrated his birthday the day prior to the crash, was in stable condition,” read the press release, adding that the driver, a 44-year-old man, was transported by ambulance to a local hospital.
“Although full determinations have not yet been made, investigators suspect that alcohol may have been a factor in the crash,” read the press release. The driver, who allegedly refused to provide his blood samples to police, will appear in provincial court later this summer.
The second incident involved a fatal collision near Numa Falls in Kootenay National Park, which happened around noon on Saturday, May 8. Columbia Valley RCMP and local paramedics both responded to the accident, which saw an eastbound white Freightliner semi truck attempt to pass a slower-moving passenger vehicle and then collide head-on with a westbound silver Honda Odyssey minivan carrying a family.
“The driver of the minivan, a 65-year-old man from New Brunswick, died at the scene. Three female passengers in the minivan, all from New Brunswick and ranging in age from 12-years-old to 58-years-old, sustained varying degrees of injury requiring medical treatment at hospital,” read the press release on this accident.
The injuries suffered by the females were serious, but not believed to be life-threatening, and neither person in the semi truck was injured.
“The driver of the vehicle being passed by the semi truck did not remain at the scene. That vehicle is described as a light-coloured SUV with a cargo box on the roof,” read the press release, adding police are urging the driver of the vehicle passed by the semi truck as well as anyone else who was traveling on Highway 93 near Numa Falls at the time of the accident on May 8 and who may have witnessed the collision or events leading up to it (including any dashboard camera video) to contact investigators.
BC RCMP Traffic Services in Cranbrook are leading the investigation into the head-on collision and can be contacted at 250-420-4244.
Anybody who witnessed the single vehicle collision and wreckage shift that injured the Good Samaritan and has not yet spoken to police is asked to call the Columbia Valley RCMP at 250-342-9292.
We drove by the accident after they opened up the highway, and let me say, wow. It was horrible. The Honda minivan was cut into pieces and stacked on a flatbed to be towed away. We heard it was a woman who died, but here is says a 58 year old male.
Please, if you can’t go fast enough in the traffic flow, pull over and let the trucks drive by. I have been behind slow “scared” drivers who are not used to mountain roads, and they force you to make a pass, sometimes in not so safe conditions.
I got a ticket once for passing a vehicle above the posted speed limit. I was able to get by safely only to get a ticket by an RCMP officer.
So, again, if you have to drive really slow, please be respectful and pull over. There are lots of pull outs where you can safely do so.