Ft Nelson Police Seek Help In Accident
By 250 News
Sunday, April 11, 2010 05:22 AM
Ft Nelson- Police say, they believe that a Ft St John man whose body was found near highway 77, about 3.5 kilometres from highway 97, may have lost control of his pickup truck, gone into the ditch and in an attempt to get the vehicle back onto the road, rolled further down the embankment throwing him from the vehicle and pinning him beneath.
Dead is James Keil of Ft St John. Police are not certain when the accident occurred, they believe sometime between 4.00 and 8.00am. Thursday morning April 8th.
Road conditions were very poor around the time, police believe the accident occurred.
Police say not wearing a seat belt and insufficient tire tread likely led to the accident.
Ft Nelson police are asking anyone who may have been in the area around that time to contact them at 250-321-0460.
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The RCMP are asking for anyone who might have been around when this accident occurred and that might help to figure out what happenned.
I was not there and do not know anyone who was there but I do offer the following:
-Hwy 77 is a highly elevated and very narrow highway with very sharp shoulders.
-It was recently paved and this was supposedly an upgrade, but is now very dangerous as a result of making it so much narrower.
-If a vehicle tire crosses the white shoulder line and falls off the shoulder (which is only a few inches away),no matter what the driver attempts, the vehicle will almost certainly roll.
-I doubt the reasons given as tire wear or seat belts had any role in this outcome as the picture clearly shows the cab being flattened. More often than not, if a pickup rolls the cab is flattened and this is a safety deficency in most trucks.
-Regardless, the issue here is very poor road design rather than vehicle deficency or driver error.
HWY 77 is schedualed to have another section paved (elevated and narowed)this coming summer, making even more of this treacherous driving condition.
The RCMP need to provide clear recomendations to the Ministry of Transport and Highways that the existing paved section be widened as per a proper highway standards, before any new paving occurs.
If this section is not fixed properly, this and other similar sad tragedies will be inevitably repeated.