Dashcam footage shows semi-trailer flip over, crash on B.C. highway
Crash sent four people to hospital, led to charges for truck driver
Dramatic dashcam footage has emerged of a semi-trailer crash near Sicamous, B.C., last week that sent four people to hospital and led to charges for the truck driver.
The crash occurred Wednesday evening when a truck loaded with groceries flipped west of Sicamous in the B.C. Interior.
The truck braked and skidded for 50 metres, but then flipped onto its side and slid for another 50 metres, striking an oncoming semi-trailer, three pickup trucks and an SUV before coming to rest, police said.
Ed Painter of Surrey, B.C., was driving one of the pickup trucks hit by the crashing vehicle and captured the collision on his dashcam. He was hauling a load to Ontario at the time.
WATCH | Truck driver Ed Painter's dashcam captures the crash in frightening detail:
"There's some pretty tight corners there ... and there's this truck coming around, looked like he was just flying and you could see he was partly in our lane. I think he saw us about the same time we saw him," Painter said.
"He tried to correct himself and went into his lane but the momentum, his trailer just kept on coming.
"I saw it coming at me and I got right over to the rock face and pretty much stopped and I couldn't get over any more and I just kind of thought, uh oh, this is going to be it."
The video shows the crashing truck's trailer explode around Painter's vehicle.
Four people were taken to hospital as a result of the crash with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Painter was among them. He said the incident left him with a sore neck. He had to call off his run to Ontario and is back home in Surrey.
An RCMP spokesperson said it was "extremely fortunate" no one was killed.
"I thought that was it. It was unreal," Painter said.
Police charged the semi driver, a 32-year-old Calgary man, with crossing a double solid line under the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act.
Painter described that section of Highway 1 as "one of the worst" between B.C. and Ontario. He wants to see it twinned as soon as possible.
"It's just crazy that we haven't done something with that," Painter said.
Corrections
- An earlier version of this story said Ed Painter was driving the semi-truck hit by a flipped vehicle skidding down the road on its side. In fact, he was driving one of the three pickup trucks hit by the crashing vehicle.Jul 22, 2020 12:18 PM PT
With files from Brady Strachan