An alarming video has surfaced showing a dangerous, illegal pass made by a semi-truck on Highway 5, near Clearwater B.C.
The video has spurred the local mayor to speak out about concerns with truck drivers in the region.
“This is horrifying,” said Merlin Blackwell, Clearwater’s mayor. “This has got to stop. People have died and people will continue to die — it is completely appalling.”
In the video, the semi can be seen making a pass over a double-solid yellow line, moving into oncoming traffic, before signalling and merging back over. At the end of the video, oncoming traffic can be seen in the lane the semi-truck had used.
One of the vehicles that were passed was forced to slow down and briefly drive on the shoulder.
The video was taken on March 24. A logging truck driver, who was driving the logging truck in the video, spoke with Global News on Saturday.
“The passing lane ended and the semi-truck, you see in the video, decided to pass on a double solid, going downhill. He met the oncoming traffic, and I had to change my driving severely to avoid an accident,” said John Keating.
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“The oncoming traffic had to swerve out of the way. I was watching the whole thing in my mirror and I had to get going a whole lot faster to make room for that guy because he obviously had no clue what he was doing.”
Keating said if he didn’t speed up and the other semi-driver behind him didn’t slow down, it would have been a fatal accident.
“If I didn’t speed up and the low bed behind didn’t slow down it would have been fatal — which has been very common around here,” he said.
The Clearwater mayor said enforcement has been stepped up in recent weeks after a triple fatal crash a few weeks ago.
“CVSE upped their game here and did almost nonstop enforcement along our corridor for about six weeks, but that ended yesterday,” the mayor said.
“It is really concerning we are still seeing the type of behaviour from the trucking industry after such strict enforcement for the six weeks.”
Blackwell also said the local highway patrol is short two officers which is also affecting enforcement.
Global news has reached out to both RCMP and the transport company for comment.