Cheryl Chew and her husband were enjoying the last few hours of their weekend when they heard a bang and their house rumbled and shook.
On Sunday, March 15 just after 9 p.m., witnesses said a car came down Golf Course Drive in Blind Bay, crossed a front yard and launched off a frozen snow bank. The car then flew through the air for almost 10 metres before landing on two vehicles parked in Chew’s driveway. The collision pushed her truck back into her garage and damaged a pillar on the side of her house.
With both cars and her garage door totalled, Chew remains thankful the accident happened when it did.
“If this was during the day and the kids were playing out front – I couldn’t even think of that,” she said.
In the midst of dealing with car and home insurance, Chew is able to see a twisted irony. She, like many others along Golf Course Drive, have petitioned the province for a lowered speed limit in the area.
Read more: Blind Bay residents want reduced speed limit
Read more: Speed limit reduction denied on South Shuswap road
In October of 2019, Blind Bay resident Syd Loeppky spearheaded a petition to reduce the speed limit along the road from 50 km/h to 40 km/h. Loeppky took the petition, signed by 247 residents in the area, to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.
Loeppky said the ministry responded by stating it appreciates the concern but the speed limit would not be reduced. However, it might put up more speed signs.
“For our little neighbourhood that’s dramatic,” Loeppky said of the accident. “It, of course, underlines the fact that we have a very dangerous curve here.”
Loeppky is working to create a citizen’s patrol to monitor the road and motivate drivers to adhere to an unofficial speed limit of 40 kilometres per hour.
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