TORONTO — Dramatic dash cam footage posted to social media shows a semi truck rolling over on the Trans-Canada Highway near Sicamous, B.C., causing a pileup and significant traffic delays.
Chad Willox, who wrote that he is “blessed to be alive” after his vehicle was “smashed” in the July 15 crash, obtained video from the dashboard camera of the driver following behind him and posted it on Facebook on Saturday.
The video shows a semi truck rolling over in front of Willox’s pickup truck, which can be seen veering off the road as the semi crashes, forcing his vehicle off the road and into a ditch. The semi, which was loaded with grocery products, continues to careen forward, slamming into the vehicle behind. It hit three pickup trucks, an SUV and another tractor-trailer before coming to a halt.
Sicamous and Salmon Arm RCMP said in a statement they believe that the driver of the semi was driving too fast around a curve in the road, causing the truck to cross the centre double line and topple on its side, sliding for approximately 50 metres.
The semi’s driver, a 32-year-old man, was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Three other adults at the scene were taken to hospital too, also with non-life-threatening injuries.
The local RCMP detachment says there is no evidence that impairment played a role in the crash — which closed the Trans-Canada Highway and sent traffic on a detour until the debris was cleared — but that speed may have been a factor. Police have since charged the driver with crossing a double solid line.
“This narrow two lane section of the highway has a rock wall on the eastbound ditch and a steep drop behind the concrete barrier on the western ditch,” Sgt. Murray McNeil of the Sicamous RCMP said in a statement. “It is extremely fortunate that this collision did not result in multiple fatalities considering the length the truck traveled before finally coming to a stop and the extent of the damage sustained to all the impacted vehicles.”