Police say it’s a miracle that no one was killed when a massive tree uprooted and slid down the steep slopes along the Sea to Sky Highway, causing a two-vehicle crash and severing the road for hours.
The incident happened around 6 p.m. Wednesday just north of the Horseshoe Bay overpass. Police estimate the tree was 30 metres (100 feet) long and one metre (4 ft.) in diameter.
“It had smashed through the cement barricades coming from up in the forests above the (highway). There were no branches attached so it looked like it was a dead tree that had fallen over and literally torpedoed through,” said Ziv Schierau, who was one of the first drivers on the scene.
Schierau got out to check on the passengers in the other vehicles. In all, eight people were taken to hospital to be treated for minor injuries but it was two Bernese mountain dogs in one of the vehicles involved in the crash that fared worse. One was injured after being thrown from the vehicle. The other was hit by a dump truck, according to police.
“As soon as the door opened, it just bolted down the highway. Unfortunately, it did not have a favourable outcome. It ran into traffic,” Schierau said.
Police say the other dog suffered two broken legs and was taken for emergency veterinary treatment.
Contractors for the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure later arrived with heavy machinery to lift out pieces of the tree after crews cut through it with chainsaws.
“They had to remove some of the cement barricades first to make sure it was safely done and the tree didn’t fall subsequently onto the train tracks below. Everything was done fairly quickly relative to the situation,” Schierau said.
Still it took almost three hours for the highway to be open in both directions. Among the people caught in the snafu that Schierau met were folks trying to catch flights at Vancouver International Airport and a woman on her way to her own birthday party.
“In fact, everybody was still very calm and patient,” he said.
Schierau said he was impressed with both the first responders and civilians on the scene.
“The fire and rescue, paramedics and police showed up very quickly and, in my opinion, did an amazing job,” he said. “The first responders really went to work and some really great citizens did an amazing job of securing the area, checking on passengers of the two vehicles that crashed into the log to make sure there were no fatal injuries and treating and comforting people.”
West Vancouver Police Department is in charge of investigating the cause of the incident, although it will likely go down as a “freak accident” said Const. Jeff Wood, department spokesman.
Still, it serves as a reminder that drivers could stand to slow down on the highway, especially in dark and wet conditions, Wood added.
