We had just spotted a sign telling us that it was 21km to Muncho Lake, our designated picnic lunch destination, when we spotted the dreaded orange signs. As we came to a halt behind a camper, we noticed that the orange sign said “wrecker ahead.”
Since we were at a place where the road curved, we could see the wrecker (the size of a small semi) up ahead, perpendicular to the highway. Looking to our right we saw that there was a 40 foot drop off the side of the highway. This didn’t look good at all.
It was clear that we were going to be there for awhile, so my sister and I decided to get out and see what was going on. This is what we saw:
The man in the white shirt was a passenger in the truck when it went off the road. He came over to where we were standing and told us his son had been driving and had fallen asleep. They had gone off the road down into the ravine, but miraculously the truck had not rolled. Neither of them were even injured.
We watched for 45 minutes as the tow truck driver got is rig into position to pull the truck back onto the highway. Meanwhile our mom was back at the car making friends with the drivers around her. It’s kind of a community out here.
To give you an idea of the remoteness of this spot, the sign on the tow truck indicated it was from a towing company in Fort Nelson, which was 100 miles behind us. The next town was 200 miles ahead of us. That means this crash had probably happened hours before we arrived on the scene. And how they had gotten ahold of the towing company we’ll never know.
Once he got the pickup out of the ravine, the driver got both vehicles to the side so that the twenty or so of us waiting could be on our way. We all gave him a big thumbs up as we drove by.
We said a prayer of thanks for safe driving so far, and for continued safety for the remainder of the journey.