A local man was lucky to escape more serious injury after a terrifying accident on the highway near the exit to Horseshoe Bay last week.
Jarid Lukosevicius was back home in the area from his first year on a hockey scholarship in Denver and was driving southbound on the Sea to Sky Highway on Dec. 16. He turned a corner shortly after it had turned dark, unaware a massive tree was blocking his path. The tree, in fact, had fallen across all four lanes.
With little time to react, Lukosevicius ran the van he was driving into the tree.
“I went around the corner and I didn’t see the tree and I ran right into it,” he said.
West Vancouver Police later reported that a tree broke, toppling down from the mountain above Highway 99 and Ansell Place, landing across the northbound lane of the highway, shattering the cement divider, falling across the southbound lanes and through the cement barrier on the shoulder of the road.
In a news release, Cpl. Jag Johal said, “The tree was approximately 100 feet long and approximately four feet wide. The tree blocked both northbound and southbound lanes for several hours.”
The vehicle was totalled, Lukosevicius said, but he avoided serious injury. He was able to get out of the van and move to a barrier where he could sit down while emergency vehicles attended the scene.
Another vehicle hit the tree before it could stop. According to media reports, eight people were taken to hospital, although no one was seriously injured in the accident.
“The only thing that really hurts is my foot,” Lukosevicius said.
He said the vehicle’s airbag deployed and hit him across the chest and not his head, and he managed to avoid any head injuries in the collision. As far as his ailing foot is concerned, he said it was only bruised and that nothing was broken.
While Lukosevicius escaped serious injury, the family dogs Lulu and Max were not so lucky. A bystander tried to help by opening the vehicle door, at which point Lulu escaped, was hit by a dump truck and died from injuries. “They were trying to help,” he said of the bystander. “It wasn’t their fault. It was just a bad situation.”
The one-year-old dogs were brother and sister. The other dog, Max, suffered a broken leg and was unable to get out of the van.
Following the accident, Lukosevicius was recuperating, taking a few days off with family for the holidays before having to return to Colorado for school and the rest of the hockey season.
Police are reminding drivers to use caution during the holiday season, especially when weather conditions are poor.
“It’s a miracle that no one was killed and very unfortunate that one of the dogs perished and the other one sustained serious injuries,” Johal said.
Another section of the Sea to Sky Highway was closed the next day, Dec. 17, in the Callaghan Forest Service Road area near Whistler because of a two-vehicle accident.
