The past week saw a string of vehicles leave the highway and end up in ditches and up against trees. Each incident happened during dry clear weather.
On Tuesday, February 25 a vehicle shut down traffic along Sooke Road for a short while when it hit a mailbox and ended up wrapping itself around a tree stump in the area between Cooper Cove and the 17 Mile Pub.
Fire Chief Steve Sorensen said there had been reports of a vehicle driving erratically prior to the accident. A female driver was saved by air bags, said Sorensen. She was assisted getting out of the vehicle by ambulance attendents and taken to hospital for observation.
At this time it is not known why her vehicle went off the road. One lane of Sooke Road was closed for a short time.
Mid-morning on a dry, sunny Wednesday (February 26)afternoon, witnesses reported that a west-bound vehicle veered right off the road, drove into a ditch and crossed a private road (right across from Park Isle Marine), where it was finally stopped by a tree. According to the driver’s adult daughter who was on the scene in a separate vehicle (with her children), the driver momentarily blacked out. No major injuries were sustained, although the driver was taken away in an ambulance.
Two days later on February 28, a similar accident occurred, this time in front of Saseenos elementary school at around 2:30 p.m., just before school let out. According to witness accounts from Kara and Savannah from Journey, and Kiara from EMCS, the Sooke-bound driver appeared to drift into oncoming traffic, and hit the cross-walk control. They said that the vehicle flipped. The wires leading to the cross-walk control came down and were resting against the metal fence.
Fire Chief Steve Sorensen said that the driver was uninjured, though he could not recall what had happened. Again, no major injuries were sustained.
