Motorists are being reminded to check their surroundings following an MVI at the intersection of Highway 97 and Exeter Station Road.
On Thursday, July 27 100 Mile Fire Rescue responded to reports of two vehicles colliding near Gustafson’s Central Chevrolet GMC Buick. The accident caused one of the vehicles, an SUV carrying two passengers, to flip onto its side. Fire Chief Roger Hollander said firefighters had to extract one patient with minor injuries from the van with the other two people involved able to walk away from the accident.
“Our crews performed auto extraction tactics and we moved that one patient through the windshield and placed them in the care of B.C. Ambulance,” Hollander said.
100 Mile RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin Smith said RCMP determined that the accident occurred when one of the cars was turning left onto Exeter Station Road while the other was travelling southbound on Highway 97. Both vehicles had green lights when they collided.
“Someone either wasn’t watching when they entered the intersection or were making a bad left turn,” Smith said. “It’s strange it occurred because I was doing traffic enforcement there (that morning) from 10 to 10:45 a.m. and didn’t see any infractions. I left and six minutes later there was an accident there.”
No tickets were given to either of the drivers, Smith added.
Hollander noted 100 Mile House has a handful of intersections within the town boundaries and they have had MVIs at most of them this summer. On Wednesday he said there was another two-vehicle MVI near Doman Road where his team had to auto extricate a trapped motorist.
“Just looking at our call volume we’re at over 40 calls in July alone,” Hollander said. “It’s an excessive amount of calls and there’s a lot of traffic on the roads.”
Smith confirmed that traffic enforcement around intersections has been a frequent concern since he took over the 100 Mile detachment in December. He noted that people often run the red lights at that intersection, heightening the risk of collisions.
“Please be aware that whenever you are entering an intersection that, even if you have a green light, to look both ways and be aware someone might still be coming through from the other direction,” Smith said.
Hollander encourages the community to practice the basic rules of road safety while driving. These include paying attention to your surroundings, judging the speed of other vehicles and reducing your own speed when driving through town.
“The use of seatbelts is very important because they keep occupants in the vehicle and that really helps the outcome if you do find yourself in a motor vehicle incident,” Hollander said. “Slow down, pay attention and (remember) just because it’s not bad weather doesn’t mean people can’t get into troubling situations.”
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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