Editor:
Recently a vehicle was found with a body in it over the edge of the Bella Coola Mountain road.
At this time no one knows when this accident occurred.
One can only imagine the trauma of having survived accidently going over the edge of this road, and then not being able to contact anybody for help.
According to a recent news article, the Bella Coola authorities have suggested that they are confident that road conditions did not play a part in this accident.
As a person who has been working for some time to bring to the attention of our government the public safety issues of this road, I reject any notion that road conditions could not have played a part in this accident.
The vehicle and its body have been there too long; any evidence of the conditions that existed on any particular moment in time have since disappeared.
This canyon road location is a natural weather trap where conditions can change very rapidly.
A few years back a mother and her daughter were travelling down this mountain when a heavy snowfall occurred, trapping their vehicle.
In an attempt to keep warm, both perished from carbon monoxide poisoning.
A friend of mine tells me of having lost traction on a snow-covered grade.
His vehicle slipped backwards several metres and could have easily also gone over the edge.
Having driven this road since 1957 in all kinds of conditions, and personally having travelled this road in fog so dense that if you don’t have someone with you as extra eyes, who knows where you could end up?
My personal vehicle has also been nailed with a falling rock the size of a small card table, so stopping on this road is not an option.
This canyon road location has several inherent public safety issues.
For any person to suggest that road conditions at an unknown time of an accident could not have played a part in that accident obviously has little winter driving experience on this road.
Doug Wilson
Williams Lake
