A Vancouver resident whose vehicle was struck by a stray baseball in Kelowna says more needs to be done to prevent this from happening again.
“I was driving down Recreation Avenue on Sunday and out of nowhere a baseball struck my car. So I pulled over, there were kids cheering, of course, because the ball hit the car,” Deirdre Rowland told Global Okanagan.
“But it really wasn’t funny because two feet from where the baseball hit was my head. The ball could have struck me and I could have really injured someone else.”
Rowland claims the stray ball came from a Kelowna Falcons game. The Falcons play at Elks Stadium on Recreation Avenue.
Rowland showed where her car was struck, pointing to a small dent approximately two feet in front of the driver’s side mirror.
Rowland said she filed a claim with ICBC, but the “broader issue is that this is a safety concern,” adding “a baseball, a stray baseball, could actually literally hurt and injure someone.”
The City of Kelowna says it rents baseball or softball facilities to a variety of different user groups, and that in all cases the user group is responsible for any damage property or persons.
“The user group would responsible for any damages and they would have to make amends on that,” said Steve Fagan, City of Kelowna arena and stadium supervisor.
Fagan added that “at Elks Stadium, there is a substantial backdrop there and, from time to time, balls do leave the park.
“We do have signage up in those facilities to warn the public of a potential errant ball. And the other thing is we are continuing to track these incidents that do happen. At that particular location, I’ve looked back through our service request for the last three years, and there’s no service request relating to any damage at that site.”
Comments