Local Driver Miffed At Plow Moves

Tuesday, January 03, 2006 10:04 AM

Prince George resident Marty Orland says he is still waiting to hear from Yellowhead Bridge as to why a snow plow swerved into his lane as he was driving back into Prince George along Highway 16 near the intersection of Jensen Road.

Orland says the plow truck suddenly swerved into his lane on December 22nd, apparently in an effort to clear the left hand lane, but continued on down the road for some distance in the wrong lane. Orland says “I phoned YRB General Manager Ken Rensby about ten minutes after this happened to tell him what took place and to try and receive an explanation." When he didn’t hear back, he then dropped into the YRB offices about four and half hours later and during a meeting with Rensby he said , “ I was told that there was no way to get in touch with the driver “. That claim was denied by Ken Rensby.

Orland says "I drive about 130,000 kilometers a year in my work and while I didn’t hit the ditch, two wheels from my vehicle were very close to going there as I attempted to miss the oncoming plow truck."

The following day Orland says "I again phoned the general manager of YRB at between 8.30 and 9.30 a.m. to find out what had taken place and again left my number for someone to get back to me."

Meantime Ken Rensby says to his knowledge he didn’t talk to Orland on Friday, and "I don’t recall" he said "that I was to get back to him to tell him what had taken place and why the driver of the unit had gone into the other lane." The lane, says Rensby, was built by the province last year as a left hand turn lane at Jensen Road and a plow truck going into that lane quickly, could have frightened Orland.

Orland says "I would not have taken the matter further except I was told there was no way to contact the driver in the truck and I had a hard time believing that and that is why I went to the media." Rensby meantime says he did not make that comment.

As of Tuesday, January 3rd, Orland is still waiting for a call.
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Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 10:04 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Chadermando on January 3 2006 12:15 PM

I'm surprised that Yellowhead Road and Bridge even had a plow out on highway 16. As far as I can tell the roads aren't maintained until you get to Bednesti and then its usually clear roads from there all the way west. Very strange to even hear of a plow on the Prince George side of that highway.

Posted by: Marty on January 3 2006 7:22 PM

Well i did finally receive a call today from him , after Ben talked to him.....I was busy and found it on my voice mail later today.
I tried to call him back ( not sure why as he already has a made up story for what happened) and the call was cut off after about 2 minutes on hold.
I was being very nice, despite an irrational driver, til i was lied to.
then i got upset and asked Ben to look into it for me.
I really have to wonder still if the plow truck driver was possibly drunk, or just not paying attention to his driving???
He was so close i was sure he was going to knock me off the road. I could go over no further without ditching mysel, i was off the paved shoulder onto gravel even as it was.
Very scary experience, and then i was not even taken seriously by the manager at YRB, which really upset me.
I do hope the driver is more careful before someone dies due to his actions!

Posted by: Palopu on January 3 2006 7:48 PM

It seems that Snow Plow drivers going West must plow out the left turn lanes, while continuing West. They dont want to actually turn left. They apparently go into the left turn lane with their turn signal on for a right turn back onto the highway. If there is traffic behind them then they have to wait to get back into the right hand lane. I suspect that this is what happened and that the driver continued down the left hand side waiting to get back into the right lane. Who knows????

Posted by: Marty on January 5 2006 9:23 AM

Palopu,

Actually that is not what happened.
The truck suddenly swerved , and was wayyyy over the centre line into my lane.
Where he continued for a ways even after past me.
I was all the way off even the paved shoulder and am still unsure how i missed him.
I seriously thought i was going to die being hit head on by a large truck with a front mounted plow.
I have literally drivedn millions of kilometres on BC hwys.
I am not a nervous driver, but that has scared me more than any other incident in all my many kms of driving.
I hit a deer near Telkwas a few years ago, and it seemed like no big deal to me compared to this.
Then to have the manager blatantly lie about stuff to me after is what really miffed me.
I hope plow truck drivers learn to stay on their side of the yellow line, and to respect that if they hit a mere vehicle they will most likely kill people!

In hind sight i should have turned around and followed him, got a plate number and reported him on suspicion of drunk driving.
As i seriously doubt a sober, or at least alert driver could be that far off in judgement.
I still feel tension in my body every time i see a plow truck coming since that happened...and not so much as an apology from the driver or manager.

Posted by: Marty on January 5 2006 9:24 AM