After hearing the CBC report of an accident on Highway #3 Friday evening, I walked to the highway. The report had been vague concerning the precise location, saying only it was between Old Hedley Road and Nickle Plate Road. Walking along Daly Avenue, I quickly became aware of bright flashing lights at the bridge crossing 20 Mile Creek. A semi-trailer truck was immobile on the bridge, in the west bound lane. As I approached, a jumbo sized tow truck arrived. In the falling snow, alternating traffic was proceeding cautiously in the east bound lane.
Walking alongside the unmoving semi, I saw that a section of concrete barrier had been smashed by the truck. If there had been no barrier, the truck might now be hanging over the edge of the bridge. A man about age 30 was passively observing the scene. I spoke with him and learned he was the owner and driver of the damaged truck.
“I was driving at the posted speed limit,” he told me. “When the truck began to slide I turned away from the barrier, but the truck was already too close. I couldn’t do much.” (Several onlookers disagreed with what the driver said about the speed he had been travelling.) The lanes over the bridge are narrow. In the darkness and steadily falling snow, with oncoming traffic, he would have had little room to maneuver.
The driver seemed surprisingly calm and able to talk about the accident clearly. I detected no indication of alcohol or other substances. “It’s my truck,” he said. “I bought it a few years ago. It’s a wreck now. The frame is bent.”
The driver of the large, very impressive tow truck backed up to within about a dozen feet of the semi. He then attached lines from his truck to the disabled truck. When he attempted to winch the semi forward, the cables made protesting sounds, but the semi refused to budge even an inch.
“The brakes won’t release,” the semi’s owner told me. The ominous groaning of the cables began spooking onlookers, including myself. We moved well away in case the cables snapped from the strain.
“I’m done with trucking,” the driver said, watching his unmoving truck. “When I get back to Abbotsford, I’m going to take the real estate course.”
I decided it might be a while before they managed to dislodge the truck from the bridge. I wished the driver well in the new career he plans to pursue. He thanked me and said “take care.”
I returned to the accident scene this morning. All that remains is a gaping hole in the barrier and a large chunk of damaged concrete. The police will now have to determine what actually happened.