A commercial vehicle lost its load of pipe near Avola, B.C. on Saturday, April 27 at around 2 p.m.
The incident happened in an area known to locals as “Hole in the Wall.”
When a northbound semi load of steel pipe hit the highway, it forced a pickup and trailer, loaded with a farm tractor, off the road and into the ditch.
Ron Rotzetter, a class one driver who attended the scene, said he posted about the incident online because he was frustrated.
“Why would this happen if the load was secured properly? We are just lucky that the elderly gentleman driving the southbound pickup wasn’t hit full on. A few seconds or minutes later and this could have been another fatal crash like we saw just a few days ago on this same highway involving another semi and a CN truck that killed a father of three. Enough is enough. There’s just no accountability. We see these incidents constantly. Soon it’s going to be someone else we know and love. Neither of these incidents were due to road conditions or the presence of law enforcement at the time,” Rotzetter posed.
Rotzetter said he feels these inexperienced drivers and the companies they work for need to be “held responsible and accountable” for the multiple motor vehicle incidents first responders get called out to along the Highway 5 corridor due to untrained drivers in the drivers’ seats of “steel bullets,” describing the huge transport vehicles involved in multiple crashes.
He gives the example of a drunk driver being charged who has a device installed in his truck that won’t allow him to drive if he’s been drinking.
“If a dangerous driver has a record of committing multiple offences in a commercial transport truck, that driver should be held to account along with the company they are working for. Many of these drivers can’t speak or read English. If they can’t read the signage how were they able to obtain a licence? Clearly this load of steel wasn’t secured by someone properly trained.”
Rotzetter admits he worries for his own his family and friends who drive the highway as he was heading to the funeral of a good friend’s parents in Merritt on April 27.
The Bjorkmans were tragically killed in a head-on collision with a speeding semi last year south of Little Fort on their way to Clearwater to deliver Christmas gifts to their son and daughter-in-law.
“How many more people have to die before government steps up to fix the problem?” Rotzetter asks. “I just wrote to the Minister of Transportation, Rob Fleming, and I still haven’t had a response to my voice mails or emails. This isn’t about the true professional drivers that take their job seriously, it’s time to discipline the offenders and their employers instead of making everyone else suffer at the expense of the few companies and drivers that consistently put the travelling public at risk.”