If you live in Prince George, you know a bit about "Black Ice" on the road. You just can't avoid it, it is a fact of life. It is totally hidden until it is too late, even the best driving precautions cannot prevent incidents.

Luckily injuries were minor, and only the vehicles are totaled.

Let us hope for quick recoveries for those involved, so they can enjoy the holiday season.

I wonder what it will take before Prince George improves their highway maintenance. Why is it that a small community like Vanderhoof manages to keep the same stretch of road clear.

The moment you hit Bednesti when travelling towards PG, the road goes from good to garbage. It's amazing how two different road crews can clear/keep clear the roads. It's the same when you travel from Fraser Lake to Burns Lake. As soon as you get to Priestly Hill, the road often looks like it hasn't been touched by a plow.

The Fraser Lake and Vanderhoof crews are to be commended.

The bottom line is that you have to drive to the conditions. You can't blame the road crews or the road.

If you go off the road, you were overdriving the conditions.

They were very lucky to only have minor injuries. Both pickups had a lot of damage, and the one looked really bad.

Once traffic got moving again, we saw that a YRB plow truck had been caught on the other side of the accident. It was now heavily sanding the passing lane, which was good because it was quite icy on that part of the highway.

We did not see very much sand if any for the entire trip to that point. So we were surprised to see one as we did not think any plow trucks had been out yet.

The interesting part is that the plow trucks turn around near the Bobtail Overpass. So that particular truck would have already driven that stretch of highway, but did not put any sand down the first time even though you could see it looked slippery leading up to a bad corner.

Perhaps if YRB Prince George had done the proper road maintenance, this accident may not have happened.

It is the same story every winter. The highways are terrible from PG to Bednesti. And then noticeably better once you get past Bednesti where YRB Vanderhoof takes over.

I think someone should be talking to that plow truck operator and asking why there was no sand on the highway even though they had just been there minutes before an accident.

A tragedy was avoided this time, but how many more accidents need to occur before YRB PG is held accountable?

Why is this section of highway always worse?

You can often see the line on the highway where the change takes place. It goes from compact snow to bare pavement immediately.

Something has to change.

I agree, you have to drive to the conditions. However, I think that someone needs to be held accountable for or explain why the conditions of the roads can change so drastically always at the point where two highway departments meet. We pay great taxes to have our roads kept as clear as possible. If someone is trying to save a few bucks at my expense or the expense of my family and friends, I think they need to be held accountable and deserve any gripes that come their way.

"If someone is trying to save a few bucks at my expense or the expense of my family and friends, I think they need to be held accountable and deserve any gripes that come their way"

Of course they weretrying to save a few bucks, once they were privatised they had to make money some how, cut services is the only way for the low bidder.

You people who have all the ideas on how or what should be done call the Ministry of Transportation. YRB has standards set out from the Ministry of Transportation and there are checks and balances on the work YRB performs. YRB does the work on what the province wants. If you would like more service, the province will add another 2% to the new HST. The bottom line is drive to road conditions. 1000 cars went by that area this morning and safetly navigated through.

"1000 cars went by that area this morning and safetly navigated through."

Exactly the point that everyone seems to miss.

I drive that stretch of road all the time and Bednesti to Prince George is always the worst.If charges were not laid there must be a reason.My guess is the road conditions were crap.Yes someone was driving to fast or not thinking but the roads still need to be maintained and if Vanderhoof can do it why can't the PG boys take care of there side.

I guess I should reiterate. I'm going to do the horrid assumption thing here, but... I'm assuming that YRB PG and YRB Vanderhoof probably get paid the same amount/kilometer of road that they maintain. Therefore, if someone is going to do a poor job and get paid the same as someone else that does a good job, shouldn't the someone doing the poor job be held accountable. I agree that umpteen hundred other cars made it through that area today and every other day. My point is that that stretch of road is very poorly maintained, when compared to other stretches of highway in the same area, whenever it snows.

It would be interesting to have some statistics about the number of accidents along that stretch of road compared compared to the number of accidents elsewhere. IMO that stretch seems to have had more than a few in the last couple of years. Coincidence? Poorer road conditions? Who knows?