A B.C. man says he’s lucky to be alive after his vehicle was showered with chunks of concrete when a transport truck’s load hit a highway overpass.
Steve Hrabchak was driving on Highway 1 in the Fraser Valley Friday when a commercial vehicle passed him, carrying a large concrete slab that struck the Number 3 Road bridge.
“Definitely there was a lot of potential for someone to get seriously hurt, there was baseball-sized chunks of concrete coming down,” he told Global News.
“That alone is enough to hurt somebody going 100 kilometres per hour … we’re talking about a 15-foot high concrete slab, when it hit the bridge the straps securing it came off, and if it had fallen over that would have been certain death for whoever was around.”
Hrabchak escaped injury, but his vehicle suffered serious damage to its front windshield.
B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation confirmed that a truck with an over-height load struck the overpass.
The RCMP says the truck driver did have a permit for the load.
Commercial vehicle operators in the province are responsible for ensuring their loads meet the terms and conditions of the permit they have been issued.
Hrabchak said the truck driver felt terrible about the incident.
“He was concerned,” he said. “He was apologetic.”
The collision is far from unique in the region.
The Ministry of Transportation confirmed there had been four similar incidents in the Fraser Valley in the last 12 months, where transport trucks carrying oversized loads have struck overhead bridges.
Transportation officials said the overpass didn’t sustain any significant or structural damage and remains safe to travel on.
JadeLine Holdings, which owns the truck, said it did its own investigation and has terminated the driver who acknowledged he was at fault for not following the proper route.