HISTORY: Community Topics | MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS

The long drive to town and the hills and curves of the road have made motor vehicle accidents all too common in the history of Joe Rich.

John Findlay was killed when his old truck rolled over and crushed him on the way to Rutland beside the Black Mountain pond.

Bruce Page rolled the Weddell’s truck over close to Budge Winter’s place (which was then Walker’s) on the way to town in the 1940s. There were other accidents close to the same spot. Ron Philpott was driving to town with a load of logs behind another smaller truck loaded with eight foot logs, a rather lowly rig in the opinion of the more professional loggers like Ron who drove bigger trucks and hauled longer logs. Close to Walker’s Hill, Ron lost sight of the other truck, but as he came over the hill there was the driver running along the road with the truck gearshift in his hand. Ron picked him up and the fellow told him he had gone over the bank and his truck was wrecked. He seemed a little funny so Ron saw that he got to the hospital. He was in hospital for two weeks with concussion. Cecil Philpott was driving his truck close to the same spot and was on his way down the hill into town. He was travelling very slowly with a large load of logs and was rolling a cigarette when his front wheels caught gravel thrown up by the grader and he rolled over the bank. The next day, he returned with a diesel shovel on the back of another truck and was able to get his rig back onto the road.

A valley resident was killed in his Volkswagen when a horse he hit came through the windshield.

Frank Russell had a serious accident at the bottom of the Black Mountain hill.

Cecil Philpott rolled his pickup. He would have been crushed by it, but a propane tank fell out of the truck and landed beside him. The truck landed on the tank and was held off of him.

Donna Birch went to sleep driving back from town and drove off the highway just past the hairpin curve. She rolled end over end and then seven times side over side to land upright on a pile of logs in Eight Mile Creek none the worse for wear. She climbed back up the steep bank to find that no one would pick up such a bedraggled and grimy woman until a Good Samaritan in a pickup truck finally brought her home.

Tracy Fast was crushed under a car when she was a passenger coming back to Joe Rich one night. Her death occurred at the same spot where the Clark boy had been killed earlier.

Ron Graves drove off the highway into the land slide just on the town side of Bald Range. He was killed. His body and his car were not found until a few days after the accident.

In the 1990s, Carol Jancikic, who lived with her husband and family across the highway from Lindahls was killed when her car turned over on the highway close to the Cardinal Creek Road.

In 2003, a pickup truck struck a car with a mother and daughter returning to their home in Falcon Ridge. The daughter was killed along with a passenger in the pickup. The young pickup truck driver accused of reckless driving and intoxication took his own life a few weeks later.

Accidents also occur in Joe Rich as a result of cars passing through the valley on the highway. In the late 1980s, three young men were returning to Kelowna after a reunion during a night of camping. They went to sleep as they drove through the valley, hit the guardrail and overturned into Belgo Creek at maximum high water. A passenger who was unbelted broke a leg and was thrown out into the creek where he struggled to shore. The driver and another passenger, both belted in, were drowned.

Some Joe Rich motor accidents have been almost humorous. Several years ago, Robert Birch then in his 20s was driving to town one night in the family Subaru. He was blinded by the lights of an oncoming car, but at the last minute he saw the outline of a cow walking across the highway just in front of him. It was too late to stop, and so he hit the cow in the front shoulder region with the left side of the bumper. The car veered to the right and the cow slapped against the driver’s side. The impact of the broad side of the car hitting the broad side of the cow broke both of the car windows on the driver’s side and produced an explosive laxative effect on the poor cow. It emptied its bowels with such force that the back window on the other side of the car was blown out by cow manure flying through the car. A large quantity was also left in the car. When ICBC was first presented with the accident report they were doubtful that such widespread damage could have been caused to the car by a cow, but a quick glance at and smell of the car assured them that the report was indeed true. A few hours after the accident, Mr. Marshall was called to report that one of his cows had been hit and was probably dead. The following day, he kindly called back to say that he had looked over the area carefully and there was no cow around. He said that big cows were very tough and that the cow had probably just walked away. It was clearly the winner of the cow/car match.

Doug McClelland, driving a truck to Rutland, hit Joe Casorso’s sheep.

Many if not most long time Joe Rich residents have struck deer at one time or another, and even more have skidded off the road on a slippery winter day. Fortunately, the highway is now very well sanded and graded for the school buses and the skiers going to Big White.

Our highway is now good and is kept well ploughed and sanded during the winter partly because it is the route to Big White. The disadvantage of this is that we must now contend with high traffic volumes both winter and summer. Since the speed limit has been raised to 90 kilometres per hour several of the passing spots have been eliminated making legal passing almost impossible when a long semi trailer or B train truck is in front. As a result in frustration, most of us sometimes pass illegally.

1990 Highway 33 Accident - Newspaper Article