Two dead, one injured as log truck loses load in Vancouver suburb

WEST VANCOUVER, B.C. — Two people died and three were hospitalized after a logging truck lost its load on the Trans-Canada Highway.

Two logging trucks were traveling west on the freeway through this suburb north of Vancouver yesterday when one went out of control, dumping big logs into the eastbound lane.

The ensuing chaos involved five vehicles, and the highway was closed for hours in both directions.

Pierre Prefontaine, a Sprint executive from North Vancouver, said he was about two minutes behind the truck and saw skid and scrape marks on the concrete divider between the eastbound and westbound lanes after he pulled over.

"Judging by the scrape marks, it scraped and bounced along the divide for about 100 meters (330 feet),'' he said.

"There were cars coming down there at 100 kilometers an hour (about 62 mph),'' Prefontaine said. "Those logs were huge. Two of the cars were just squished...

"The really squished car had two people in it. I looked at them, but there wasn't much you could do.''

The second car had a single occupant, a woman who appeared to be breathing with difficulty. Two other cars were less seriously damaged.

Area resident Tom Deeth told reporters the accident happened on a tight turn.

BCTV News on Global reported that the log trucks, one of them owned by Chalwood Forest Products of Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, were headed for the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal.

Company owner Perry Chalifour said the truck operator had been driving heavy vehicles for 17 years.

"He's well experienced. I don't know really what happened,'' Chalifour told CTV.