It's still unclear what caused a truck crane driver to steer his 60-ton vehicle off Highway 99 and down an 80-foot embankment Friday (March 19), but he's lucky his injuries weren't more severe, said his employer, Gwil Crane Services president Rob Magee.
"He's resting very comfortably at home with three broken ribs, a broken nose and contusion to the head, but all in all he's doing very well," said Magee.
Police are still investigating the incident, which took place on a straight stretch of road at 5:45 p.m. as the driver headed southbound just north of Conroy Forest Service Road, and resulted in as much as 500 litres of hydraulic fuel and 100 litres of diesel seeping into a tributary to the Cheakamus River.
Witnesses driving behind the truck have been interviewed, said Magee, and looks like the driver was simply distracted.
"The preliminary indication is that something distracted him and he was on the shoulder and couldn't recover," he said.
Numerous agencies responded to the accident, including the Ministry of Environment, Provincial Emergency Program, Whistler Fire Rescue and members of the military from CFB Shilo, who happened to be in the area for Paralympic closing ceremony security.
It took several days for engineers to assess the scene and come up with a plan to remove the massive vehicle.
On Tuesday (March 23), crews began building a rudimentary roadway down the slope to access the crushed and upside down $500,000 piece of equipment. A southbound portion of Highway 99 was closed for the duration of the work. By Wednesday afternoon (March 24) it was removed.
The crane service company hired environmental consultants Pottinger Gaherty to clean up the site, and RMCP Cpl. Dave Ritchie said clean up crews travelled as far as 300 metres downstream laying down absorbent material designed to soak up oil spills.
However environmental watchdog John Buchanan says the initial efforts were inadequate after inspecting the scene Monday (March 22).
He said the absorbent material strewn throughout the stream was completely saturated but the creek still showed obvious evidence that fuel remained.
"Usually in a spill they'll put this stuff down and they'll pull it up after 15 minutes, and they'll keep on doing it until it comes up clean and they'll leave some stuff there to pick up any residue that's around," said Buchanan. "But this stuff is saturated."
Buchanan said the spill is admittedly a small one, but he would've like to see "appropriate follow up." He said by Wednesday the creek looked better, but there's still contaminated soil to be concerned about.
"That fuel is going to be underneath that riprap so it's impossible to get to," he said. "The next few heavy rainfalls, that'll just get washed into the creek, so hopefully they'll keep their booms in place on the creek to capture some of that."
Calls to Pottinger Gaherty were not returned by press time, but Magee said his last conversation with the consultants on Wednesday afternoon was "there was nothing of immediate concern."
"They think that they've done a pretty good job of cleaning up," he said. "The first people responding got the mats down. We flipped the machine over, and there was no further fluid that seeped out into the creek."
He added the site continues to be monitored.
