A professional driver now fighting for his life in hospital after sliding off Highway 3 in Manning Park had 25 years’ experience behind the wheel, the last three of them at Sutco Transport in B.C.
“The driver is a very intelligent man with a post-secondary education,” Sutco vice-president Douglas Sutherland told CTV News.
“He also sits on our Joint Health and Safety Committee,” and is a Canadian citizen, he added.
The unnamed driver was last seen on Tuesday night and was reported missing to authorities the following morning.
Police and search and rescue teams conducted a ground and aerial search but failed to find him. An off-duty volunteer with Hope Search and Rescue noticed something odd about a notorious corner at the Rhododendron Flats area of Higheway 3 and stopped to look. He spotted the rig sprawled on an embankment 20 metres down the highway and called for help. The curve is about 35 kilometres east of Hope
Mounties say when rescuers arrived the driver was lucid and able to speak to them, though he was trapped inside the cab of his semi.
“[There was] some concern for his lower body just based on the fact he'd been pinned in the fetal position for two days,” said Cost. James Halliday of the RCMP’s Fraser Valley Traffic Services.
“I've been on highway patrol for the past 9 years and I've seen many many many crashes of this nature. This is the most complex one where we've had to extricate someone."
Search and rescue crews from Hope and Chilliwack teamed up with Jamie Davis Towing for a rescue operation that ultimately took nine hours.
Veteran tow truck driver and Highway Through Hell lead Jamie Davis orchestrated the Herculean and complex rescue operation.
“We had three plans in place,” Davis told CTV News.
The SAR teams worked inside the cab to cut away slabs of metal to try and get to the driver, while a mobile mechanic removed the transmission to try accessing the driver that way. The whole time, two heavy-duty tow trucks had heavy steel cables anchoring the semi-truck to keep it from shifting.
A total of two dozen people worked furtively on the side of the cliff to try and free the badly injured man inside, risking their own lives in the process.
“I've been in Hope over 14 years and I think there's only one other extrication that was a technical as this one. This ranks up there with the toughest jobs," said Davis.
They finally removed the driver around 11 p.m. Thursday. He’s nursing life-threatening injuries in an ICU with his wife at his side, according to Sutherland.
Mounties are still investigating the cause of the crash but don’t expect anything conclusive until next week.
Professional trucker Sheldon German had also driven Highway 3 on Tuesday, the same day the trucker slid off the highway. He says the conditions on that stretch and the surrounding truck routes this winter have been the worst he’s ever seen.
"A lot of white-out conditions. A lot of times we get that at night time, the harder storms, but this time it's been a lot during the daytime,” he said.
“It’s very difficult to see the truck in front of you as there's a lot of blowing snow."
German says experienced drivers know to slow down on the most treacherous sections of road, but he sees too many truckers who don’t seem familiar with the trickiest parts.
“Some days it makes you wonder if you're going to get home when you go through these storms and you see some of the drivers that are up there.”
The Ministry of Transportation tells CTV News that Sutco Transport has a satisfactory rating with the Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement (CVSE) branch.
Sutherland says the driver had only been 3.5 hours into his first shift of the week when he left the road. He adds Sutco has a training program in place for drivers who lack experience driving in winter conditions.
“Our experienced drivers receive a pre-winter refresher on chaining up and making sure all their equipment is prepared for the conditions ahead.”
