Drivers are being encouraged to slow down amid harsh winter conditions along Highway 97 near Summerland.
The blast of winter weather had first responders scrambling to deal with multiple vehicle accidents on Wednesday.
Penticton Deputy Fire Chief Chris Forster said multiple accidents have been reported in the 17000 to 19000-block of Highway 97.
The Penticton fire department responded to one of the accidents north of Penticton and conducted traffic control as the road conditions deteriorated.
Vernon resident Cassandra Johnson was travelling home from Penticton around 11:00 a.m. when she spotted at least two separate accidents in the Summerland area.
She said a minor accident involving front end damage just south of Summerland was blocking southbound traffic, and that the crash north of Summerland was more serious.
“The car was pretty mangled and all of its airbags were deployed,” she said on Wednesday.
Johnson said the road conditions aren’t “that bad,” but she said many impatient drivers were not driving safely.
“If you’re driving to the conditions it was fine, but a lot of people, even when you had your four ways on, were coming flying past you, and I’m surprised another accident didn’t happen.”
Johnson said traffic control crews were alternating traffic due to the southbound accident.
“They had the highway blocked off on both sides. Even though it was blocking southbound traffic they stopped it northbound to make sure they could alternate traffic and people were getting road ragey over it.”
Johnson said several drivers formed a barricade to block other drivers from dangerously trying to get around the accident.
“They were trying to sneak past people in the line so a bunch of people including us went into the middle of the road with our hazards on to block everybody because people were flying past doing like 80 and it comes to a complete stop right around that corner.”
DriveBC reports “compact snow with slippery sections from Summerland to Junction with Highway 97C.”
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