Pickup hits firetruck, 2 other cars at Hwy. 97 crash scene

LAKE COUNTRY — A driver who may have been asleep behind the wheel plowed into a firetruck and narrowly missed a police cruiser at the scene of another crash in Lake Country Monday morning.

Emergency crews were on scene of a single vehicle collision on Highway 97 North in Lake Country at 8:30 a.m., when another collision occurred in the southbound lanes of the highway near the Pelmewash Parkway exit.

The driver of a blue Dodge Ram pickup truck reportedly broadsided and severely damaged a firetruck, which had its emergency lights activated at the crash scene, before it sideswiped a black Mazda pickup truck and struck an unoccupied black Dodge Dart.

“At least two firefighters of the Lake Country Volunteer Fire Department, who had been directing traffic around the initial collision scene, were forced to dive out of the path of the Dodge Ram pickup truck,” said Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey.

A snowmobile being transported by the Dodge Ram pickup truck launched nearly 30 feet from the truck bed and landed in the oncoming northbound lanes of the highway, he said.

“During this chain reaction crash, the Dodge pickup truck narrowly missed striking the marked police cruiser with a Lake Country RMCP officer inside completing her police reports at the scene.”

Mounties ruled out alcohol as a factor in the crash, but they believe the driver of the Dodge pickup truck may have fallen asleep behind the wheel.

The driver of the Dodge Ram, a 23-yearold North Okanagan Shuswap man, was uninjured in the crash.

He was issued several charges with fine amounts totalling more than $1,100.