‘Call Of Nature’ May Have Saved Young Man’s Life
Crews work to remove pick-up truck from James Drive home 250News photo
Prince George, BC – The ‘call of nature’ came at precisely the right moment for a young Prince George man, who was sleeping in the bedroom where a pick-up truck crashed through the wall just moments later…
Prince George RCMP Sergeant Al Steinhauser says the young man left the room approximately 30-seconds before the southbound truck left Ospika Boulevard, ploughed through the trees of a vacant lot behind the home, and catapulted into the second-floor, back bedroom at 3604 James Drive at approximately 2am.
Sergeant Steinhauser says the vehicle was travelling at a high rate of speed and gained momentum as it careened through the backyard and hit the deck. He says the investigation is still in the preliminary stage, but alcohol is being looked at as a contributing factor, as well.
There were three people staying in the home. Miraculously, no one was injured. There were two people in the truck, one sustained minor injuries and had to be transported to hospital.
The young residents were at the home this afternoon as efforts by Prince George Fire Rescue and a local towing company to extricate the truck attracted a growing crowd, and traffic along Ospika slowed to a crawl.
Still shaken, the young man who had that fortuitous ‘call’ in the middle of the night did not wish to speak to 250News at this time. The man’s sister, Georgia Betkus, and her boyfriend, Chris Pendray, were asleep in the downstairs suite when the crash occurred.
"I just heard a loud noise, obviously, and the house shook," says Pendray. "So we came out the bottom door and walked up the stairs to the top just to see if her brother was okay. We found out he was and we went outside to see if the driver and passenger were okay. We eventually found both of them and they were okay and, then the police arrived."
A nearby resident, who asked not to be identified, says, she, too, heard the crash and came running over after spotting a cloud of dust in the backyard. "I headed over there in my nightgown and thought I was going to see dead people. I saw the driver run away. I said, ‘Hey, stop,’ but he just ran away and I saw another person in the vehicle, so I helped him out."
The woman lives alongside the northbound lanes of Ospika Boulevard and says she’s been battling with the City for years to do something about what she calls a ‘hell curve’. "My house has been hit – with hit-and-runs and people who stayed – probably 20 times in the last 30-years," she says. No one has been seriously hurt in the crashes, but she says, so far, all the City has done to deal with speeding on that stretch of road is to place two yellow signs denoting the upcoming curve. (shown in photo at left)
She says she flew out of bed this morning because she’s used to the sound of a middle-of-the-night crash and thought it was her house that had been hit, yet again.
Another resident from nearby Christopher Drive says he’s been drawn to today’s crash site numerous times over the past several years by the sounds of similar mishaps.
"People just drive too fast on this road."
A phrase uttered by many of those who came to survey the aftermath of the spectacular crash: "I can’t believe no one was killed."
Comments
Seems we have another new batch of young compensating lads with over sized pickups that enjoy flying down Ospika. Seen them lately on North Ospika, driving like idiots, stereos cranked up enough to wake the dead. Just a matter of time before they lose it on a corner and take out joggers, cyclists or the couples out walking there little ones in strollers.
Have called the RCMP on several occasions to do a radar check in the area, but it seems they have too many other things to do than ensure public safety. Not like we haven’t had more than enough accidents in the area where speed (and stupidity) were an issue.
Use to live across from that house on Ospika. I remember it seemed that people use take out that house’s fence and that lamp post about once a year. That is the reason for those large boulders between the sidewalk and the fence.
To many people speeding along Ospika and a lot of accidents over the years. I remember a close call with a vehicle almost hitting a house kitty corner to this house (Ospika & Sycamore). Fortunately, the car came to a stop a few feet from the house.
The driver was speeding, no question about that. High probability that he was drunk as well. Especially to drive over 1 block through the under brush and not realize it.
The city should consider putting in a speed bump for this corner to slow the traffic down. This idea is not uncommon. Other communities have something like this to slow people down in certain areas. Speeding and accidents in this specific corner happens to often.
Glad to hear everyone no one is hurt…how much time do you get for break and entry?
These are clear cut cases of where the old laws (still on the books) of Impaired driving, driving without due care and attention, dangerous driving etc; etc; should be used, and those charged go to court, and suffer the consequences of their actions.
Having a day or two in court for all to see, is much better than a petty fine, that only saves the Government some money.
Time to bring down the hammer.
The two caution signs are in the northbound lane of Ospika.
The crash happened in the southbound lane.
There are no warning signs for southbound traffic.
If one were not paying attention such as texting, changing station on a radio, etc. and one were to not change direction, one could actually drive up a fairly shallow incline, just miss a light pole, through the back fence and into the house. The boulders placed along the fence bordering the street would be missed completely.
There is a small scrubby green space behind the houses in that area with frontage on Ospika. A vehicle coming through the curve could actually leave the road there and climb a gentle slope and end up in the field behind the houses.
That property may be City property.
Looked it up on PGMAP. It is listed as Christopher Park. Looks like an unimproved park. Build some swings and kids would be in danger, obviously.
Just another unkempt city “park”. This one poses a bit of a danger to a house, as we can see since it allows vehicles to drive through it when they miss the curve at 110 kph
Another shining example of a real moron who should never be allowed behind the wheel of another vehicle again.
Did anyone notice the comments to the first story about this were deleted? Wonder why?
“The crash happened in the southbound lane.
There are no warning signs for southbound traffic.”
You can’t warn moron’s gus!
I agree. I was just pointing out that there are no signs on the southbound lane sine the article mentioned the northbound lane signs.
If cars have been missing the curve in the southbound lane for some time, then I think the City needs to at least put some no post guardrails there, the same as they finally di on the much sharper curve at North Nechako Rd. eastbound and Preston Rd. The house there had been hot on several occasions.
Street need to be designed for a certain level of morons. The North Nechako curve was not from the start.
The Ospika one at James Drive has a reasonable curve and level of protection (i.e. none) for normal drivers under normal summer conditions.
However, it appears that practice has shown otherwise. Certainly in winter ice conditions one could easily keep on going in a straight line if driving even the speed limit of 50 and certainly at 60 with a driver who does not know how to drive in such conditions, has poor tires and poor directional control.
I do not know the nature of the leaving of the road there in the past, but if it is similar as yesterday, then the City could have done something a bit more positive such as they did at North Nechako Rd.
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As far as morons go, the City finally did something to protect the trees planted in the median strip further south on Ospika after trees there were taken out on several occasions by yahoos. A few well placed larger boulders seem to have done the trick there.
Sometimes it just takes the City a bit longer to realize that we still have remnants of the wild west living amongst us. ;-)
That fence has been rebuilt so many times I think the owner finally gave up. I recall large boulders were placed there as well, like the ones along Ospika but were removed for some strange reason. Maybe they were placed on park property and were removed by the city!
the city manager needs to be replaced. This guy is not on the ball. There are so many unsafe places in this town and he has no clue how to deal with them. Just go down to Norwood off of 20th. Ever walked down that deadly bloody hill? More accidents there than any other trail in PG. Should be fenced off top and bottom or set of stairs placed there. Some deadly corners should have those cement triangular lane dividers placed along the shoulders or between the lanes for public safety. Best solution: Get a new manager with some ingenuity. Seriously! We need someone who will get off his ass and drink a little less coffee!
gus: “As far as morons go, the City finally did something to protect the trees planted in the median strip further south on Ospika after trees there were taken out on several occasions by yahoos. A few well placed larger boulders seem to have done the trick there.”
Have you been down Ospika lately? The City recently removed the boulders. I don’t think the trees are big enough yet to withstand a moron and his 4×4, hopefully history doesn’t repeat.
western2: weren’t there stairs on that hill down Norwood? or is that Oak? Who really wants to walk down Norwood St anyway, not the city manager or any of the cronies…imo
PS: city manager is now a fem, as is the assistant, the speech writer hasn’t been hired yet – still in screening stage
Professional makes a good point about the young lads with their oversized pickups.I see it on the highway all the time. Too much power in the hands of inexperienced drivers.So what is the root cause? Could it be that any person with a minimum wage can go buy a $60,000.00 vehicle with nothing down and payments over 96 months.
Really surprized to see my post deleted on the other article on this. 1 word
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