Rocky start to 2 week vacation - crash and more
i have been planning a 2 week vacation all year, eagerly looking forward to the first time ever I have planned an RV trip for pleasure only. All my other trips have always been work related.
Yesterday was the big day. Got the TT all loaded up and ready to go on Thursday. Friday morning we headed out on our trip from Calgary Alberta to Vancouver Island, with the first stop in Kamloops for the night. A holiday weekend, BC Day and the roads were beyond busy, huge amounts of traffic.
We were traveling the Rogers Pass, west of Golden BC and going up a long hill in a 2 lane passing zone, and the approaching lane was 1 lane. I saw a slow moving big truck ahead and waited until clear, turned on my signal light and made a safe lane change to pass the truck. I was passing, about even with the semi truck tractor when I saw a small car over the double solid line and passing me with a semi truck fast approaching coming the other way. Driver of the car must have realized she made a huge mistake and panicked seeing the truck approaching. She was about even with my truck and suddenly swerved into my lane. I leaned on the horn, steered to the right a bit and went for the brakes. I had nowhere to go because I was beside the big truck and didn't want to run into it. She drove right into the side of my truck and continued to steer hard in my direction. I was now hard on the horn and brakes but she kept coming, now crammed right into the side of my truck. I could hear the sound of bending metal and my left front wheel grinding up the side of her car. Now very hard on the brakes, I dropped back and she continued to steer right. Her car now went in front of my truck, out of control and went sideways and was against my front bumper as I began to push her sideways on the highway. As I was braking hard, her car went ahead totally out of control and spun out, skidding in a circle and slammed backwards into the concrete median and came to rest. The semi truck beside me had to lock up the brakes to avoid plowing into the car.
I pulled past the car now stopped and I pulled over to he right to allow the heavy traffic to get past us.
Driver told me she was traveling with the vehicle in front and wanted to stay behind them. She seemed to think this somehow justified pulling over a double solid and passing me in a very unsafe manner.....
My passenger later told me that they had the passenger window down in the car and were screaming at me to pull over. I didn't hear or see that as I was looking ahead at the busy traffic I was in. Seems she wanted me to change lanes into the semi so she could occupy the lane I was in. Weird....
Thankfully nobody was hurt. That's the main thing. Her car is a mess, heavily damaged in several areas. My truck is damaged but a new bumper and decorative wheel cover will fix that.
So there was a 2 hour delay while we waited for police to arrive and take care of the paperwork etc.
Now we are late for our reservation in Kamloops RV Park.
We get further down the road to Chase BC and the road is closed due to an accident. Fortunately I know the area and I was able to pull off and go through town and get around the mess. Haha! I exclaimed, got around it and will be here soon.
I spoke too soon, as a few miles down the road there was a highway vehicle stopping traffic. Road closed ahead, both directions. Bus and car tangled, very serious crash with fatalities and the highway is closed both directions. I was told it will be another 2 hours before they open it again. Meanwhile it's now later in the evening and we are tired and just want to get to the CG and relax. We were only about 20 miles from our destination.
Again, knowing the area, I know of a rough old gravel road that parallels the highway on the other side of the river. I get our rig turned around on the highway and go back to Chase, over a bridge there and we proceed down the old road to bypass he road closure. Everyone else had the same idea. We could see the highway from where we were and the traffic was backed up for many many miles in both directions. We could see the bus kind of laying over partly on its side. We finally made our way to Pritchard, east of Kamloops and over a rickety old bridge and back onto the highway.
Finally, late evening we pull into the CG in Kamloops and claim our reserved spot.
What a day! I sure hope the rest of the 2 week vacation goes better than this!
So word of caution, not that it will do any good, but watch out for idiots on the road. They are out there, amongst us and are in way too much of a hurry to exercise good judgement in traffic.
Have a safe and happy weekend everyone!!!
Yesterday was the big day. Got the TT all loaded up and ready to go on Thursday. Friday morning we headed out on our trip from Calgary Alberta to Vancouver Island, with the first stop in Kamloops for the night. A holiday weekend, BC Day and the roads were beyond busy, huge amounts of traffic.
We were traveling the Rogers Pass, west of Golden BC and going up a long hill in a 2 lane passing zone, and the approaching lane was 1 lane. I saw a slow moving big truck ahead and waited until clear, turned on my signal light and made a safe lane change to pass the truck. I was passing, about even with the semi truck tractor when I saw a small car over the double solid line and passing me with a semi truck fast approaching coming the other way. Driver of the car must have realized she made a huge mistake and panicked seeing the truck approaching. She was about even with my truck and suddenly swerved into my lane. I leaned on the horn, steered to the right a bit and went for the brakes. I had nowhere to go because I was beside the big truck and didn't want to run into it. She drove right into the side of my truck and continued to steer hard in my direction. I was now hard on the horn and brakes but she kept coming, now crammed right into the side of my truck. I could hear the sound of bending metal and my left front wheel grinding up the side of her car. Now very hard on the brakes, I dropped back and she continued to steer right. Her car now went in front of my truck, out of control and went sideways and was against my front bumper as I began to push her sideways on the highway. As I was braking hard, her car went ahead totally out of control and spun out, skidding in a circle and slammed backwards into the concrete median and came to rest. The semi truck beside me had to lock up the brakes to avoid plowing into the car.
I pulled past the car now stopped and I pulled over to he right to allow the heavy traffic to get past us.
Driver told me she was traveling with the vehicle in front and wanted to stay behind them. She seemed to think this somehow justified pulling over a double solid and passing me in a very unsafe manner.....
My passenger later told me that they had the passenger window down in the car and were screaming at me to pull over. I didn't hear or see that as I was looking ahead at the busy traffic I was in. Seems she wanted me to change lanes into the semi so she could occupy the lane I was in. Weird....
Thankfully nobody was hurt. That's the main thing. Her car is a mess, heavily damaged in several areas. My truck is damaged but a new bumper and decorative wheel cover will fix that.
So there was a 2 hour delay while we waited for police to arrive and take care of the paperwork etc.
Now we are late for our reservation in Kamloops RV Park.
We get further down the road to Chase BC and the road is closed due to an accident. Fortunately I know the area and I was able to pull off and go through town and get around the mess. Haha! I exclaimed, got around it and will be here soon.
I spoke too soon, as a few miles down the road there was a highway vehicle stopping traffic. Road closed ahead, both directions. Bus and car tangled, very serious crash with fatalities and the highway is closed both directions. I was told it will be another 2 hours before they open it again. Meanwhile it's now later in the evening and we are tired and just want to get to the CG and relax. We were only about 20 miles from our destination.
Again, knowing the area, I know of a rough old gravel road that parallels the highway on the other side of the river. I get our rig turned around on the highway and go back to Chase, over a bridge there and we proceed down the old road to bypass he road closure. Everyone else had the same idea. We could see the highway from where we were and the traffic was backed up for many many miles in both directions. We could see the bus kind of laying over partly on its side. We finally made our way to Pritchard, east of Kamloops and over a rickety old bridge and back onto the highway.
Finally, late evening we pull into the CG in Kamloops and claim our reserved spot.
What a day! I sure hope the rest of the 2 week vacation goes better than this!
So word of caution, not that it will do any good, but watch out for idiots on the road. They are out there, amongst us and are in way too much of a hurry to exercise good judgement in traffic.
Have a safe and happy weekend everyone!!!
