By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Snowy weather conditions last week made for very slippery sections of road with the notorious corner on Hwy. 97 beside Deadman Lake claiming three cars on the morning of Friday, Jan. 19.
The three motor vehicle incidents (MVIs), all separate incidents, occurred in virtually the same location within an hour of each other, two of them within minutes. In one case the car flipped on its side.
Oliver RCMP commander Sgt. Don Wrigglesworth said the detachment received a request for traffic control on Hwy. 97 just before road 21 from Collision Craft towing.
A white Toyota Highlander had lost control on an icy corner and was in the ditch requiring the Highway be closed briefly to remove the vehicle.
Map shows the location of the notorious stretch of road around which the three cars slid into the ditch.
At 11:51 a.m. Oliver RCMP received a dispatch of a rollover MVI in the same spot, but involving a different vehicle, a Grey Ford Escape. Cst. Demerais attended and upon arriving noticed a red Chevrolet Cavalier also in the ditch with airbags deployed just 23 metres away.
Fire and ambulance were already on scene, Wrigglesworth said, but the driver of the Ford Escape refused transport to the hospital and had a friend pick him up instead. The driver did not appear to be injured and showed no signs of intoxication, he added.
He also noted that the Oliver fire department had indicated they were aware of the Cavalier in the ditch which happened at some point between the Highlander and Ford Escape MVI’s.
The occupants of the other two vehicles had left the scene with Cst. Demerais calling the registered owners of the Toyota Highlander and the Chevrolet Cavalier to confirmed that both drivers were unharmed.
The patch of road is just north of the passing lanes and makes two curves, one to the `left and one to the right when heading north.
“It was just icy roads,” according to Oliver Fire Department Chief Bob Graham. “Two cars went off one side and one went off the other side and flipped over. It was just a matter of getting them off the road and getting the tow truck there.”
He added that two people were transported to hospital by ambulance with unknown injuries. Wrigglesworth reported “no injuries, only minor damage to the vehicles, with all three towed to Collision Craft in Osoyoos.
All three parties reported “excessively icy roads on the corner,” Wrigglesworth reported adding that Cat. Demerara “observed icy roads that had not received any gravel.”
The company responsible for maintaining Hwy. 97 – AIM roads – was notified of the situation by the Oliver Fire Department.
“It’s a well known corner for that kind of thing,” Graham said. He suggested that because of the proximity to Deadman’s Lake there might be just enough moisture to ice up that section of road. “Standing in the middle of the road you could just slide around,” he said.
Graham’s advice: “drive safely and slow down!” The fire chief noted that as the firefighters and RCMP were directing traffic when it was one lane’s turn to proceed drivers were driving at full speed. “Slow down,” Graham reiterated.
