A lawyer spearheading a proposed class-action lawsuit against the B.C. government says a precautionary closure of Highway 99 overnight shows that little has changed since deadly landslides in the same area two years ago.
The Ministry of Transportation said it closed the highway between Pemberton and Lillooet, a stretch known as Duffy Lake Road, from 8 p.m. Monday to 7 a.m. on Tuesday as a precautionary measure amid heavy forecast rainfall.
On Nov. 15, 2021, five people were killed on the same stretch of road during mudslides triggered by the series of atmospheric rivers that devastated southwestern British Columbia.
Robbert Gibbens represents the family of Shyama Devi Mihas, an infant who was orphaned when her parents’ vehicle was swept away in the same slide.
Gibbens filed a suit on behalf of the child in B.C. Supreme Court in March 2022, and is seeking to have it certified as a class action, claiming negligence on the part of the province.
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The suit claims the province failed to adequately deactivate logging roads upslope from the highway, resulting in conditions susceptible to a landslide after the storm.
“There’s nothing really they didn’t know today that they didn’t know then — they knew the issue of the failure to deactivate would lead to these conditions,” he told Global News.
“If you get the right recipe, rain, and the failure to properly deactivate, you’re going to get these conditions that are going to wipe out highways or communities.”
Gibbens said the roads should have been decommissioned long before the tragic 2021 storms, and that Monday’s closure showed they still had yet to take effective action.
“They’re doing it now. They should have done about it back then,” he said.
“They’ve known about these conditions for at least 20 years. There’s nothing new in all of this. I suppose it just takes some deaths to grab their attention.”
Transportation Minister Rob Fleming told Global News the closure was purely a precautionary measure, and that the highway reopened Tuesday morning after an inspection revealed there was no danger.
He said the province has been proactive about repairing and upgrading infrastructure since the devastating storms — including reopening the damaged Coquihalla Highway within 35 days.
“The temporary repairs to the travelling public appear to be permanent repairs for most people, but we’re still doing work to improve the infrastructure and improve it to a resilient standard so that it can survive climate-related extreme weather events in the future,” he said.
“So (Highway) 99 is on the list, there has been work done there, that will continue, and people who live in that area and are connected between communities like Pemberton and Lillooet will be advised of work and any traffic disruptions caused by crews working on that stretch.”
Gibbens said the lawsuit is scheduled to have its class-action certification hearing next January.
None of the claims have been proven in court.
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