I am writing to express my anger regarding the condition of the Trans-Canada Highway between Revelstoke and the Shuswap. I request that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure move ahead quickly with implementing the planned highway upgrades and the replacement of the 60-year-old, narrow bridges on that route.
I hope that by describing my near-miss, I can add to the list of reasons to move forward quickly with the highway upgrades.
On Friday, Nov. 29, I left Revelstoke westbound at about 7:30 a.m.
As I approached the Malakwa bridge, there was a semi-truck travelling behind me at a normal distance. I was travelling at about 85 km/h. I was about four seconds from the bridge when I saw that at the west end of the bridge, an eastbound mini-van was doing 360-degree spins and about to move onto the bridge.
I could not stop with the truck behind me and I could not veer off into the ditch to avoid the mini-van because of a guardrail and the river bank. So I drove onto the bridge. The van was wildly out of control, travelling east in the westbound lane with the vehicle on an angle as it moved forward. Very fortunately for me, I was able to drive around him in the opposite lane and I missed him by inches – all while on the bridge. That time, nobody was hurt and no vehicles were damaged.
This highway is not an abstract whose worth can be rated against the worth of other government priorities.
Upgrading the Trans-Canada Highway is worth our lives.
Jackie Morris