UPDATED 2:36 p.m. on Jan. 3
An eastbound commercial semi-trailer truck splintered a telephone/hydro pole before crossing all lanes of traffic just east of Grand Forks on Friday morning on Highway 3, knocking out power to 11 FortisBC customers in the process and leading to another vehicle crash as a result.
Cpl. Chris Wolfram of the RCMP West Kootenay Traffic Services said Friday afternoon that road conditions were not a factor in the incident; rather, “speed and driver error” were at play in the semi’s crash.
The driver of a westbound white pickup truck reacted to the scene, crashing his vehicle in the process. Wolfram said that the driver of the pickup, a local man from the Boundary at the “wrong place at the wrong time,” was taken to hospital for observation. The driver of the semi truck stayed on scene and was uninjured in the crash.
By 8:30 a.m., traffic was flowing by alternating directions through the scene, at the guidance of flaggers on site.
By 9 a.m., the vehicles involved had been cleared from the road and FortisBC crews were assessing the incident’s impact on nearby power lines. According to FortisBC’s online outage map, the incident cut power to 11 customers closest to the sight of the accident. Power was restored by 4:17 p.m.
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