Pickup plows into fire truck at crash scene

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

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

Police said the driver of a blue Dodge Ram pickup truck reportedly broadsided and severely damaged a fire truck, 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 nine metres 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 RCMP 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-year-old North Okanagan-Shuswap man, was uninjured in the crash.

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

Witnesses who have not yet spoken to police are asked to call RCMP at 250-766-2288.