Argo coughs up for windshield

UPDATE Feb 23

The family of a young West Kelowna woman whose windshield was smashed by snow thrown from a plow truck says Argo Road Maintenance has stepped up to pay for the damage.

Peter Kessler says a stranger named Jack called to say he would pay for Alicia Kessler's new windshield, but that turned out to be unnecessary when Argo emailed a day later to say it would cover the cost of replacement.

"They said 'just give us the bill, and we will pay it,'" said the woman's father.

Kessler said the work is now being done by Valley Glass, near the family's Glenrosa home.

---

ORIGINAL Feb. 20

A young West Kelowna woman had the scare of her life when a wall of snow smashed her windshield while she was driving on Lower Glenrosa Road earlier this month.

Alicia Kessler was driving to work at about 12:30 in the afternoon Feb. 2 when heavy, wet snow thrown from the blade of a plow truck passing above on nearby Highway 97 landed on her car.

She screamed and slammed on the brakes, said her father, Peter Kessler.

When she called him to come and help, Kessler said a "great big triangle of snow, a 15-foot pyramid," surrounded the car and went all the way across the road. 

"Her car was right in the middle of it."

The rest of the road was clear.

The topography of the area may have contributed to the incident. In the dip at Powers Creek, Lower Glenrosa is very close to the southbound lanes of the highway and about 20 feet below it.

Kessler said an Argo Road Maintenance plow truck came down the hill "and threw a large amount of snow onto my daughter's windshield, totally destroying it."

The father said his daughter was so distraught she couldn't drive home and has hardly driven since because she is scared.

But he's not angry about the incident. He just wants his daughter's windshield replaced.

"This is Canada in winter ... If it was a crack or a chip, that happens all the time in the Okanagan. But this was one in 1,000 or even 10,000."

Alicia said she only saw the advancing wall of snow when it was about a foot away.

"I felt pretty scared. I couldn't do anything about it, so I just hit the brakes. I didn't know what else to do," she said.

Alicia was alone in the car at the time and was unhurt, but the abrupt stop and shock of the impact left her shaken.

Kessler said he contacted Argo after the incident and sent the company photos of the damage, but he has yet to get any satisfaction.

"We have been playing phone tag for two weeks," he said. "My daughter has not driven the car since and cannot afford a new windshield right now." 

Castanet was able to reach Argo operations manager Al Fraser at the company's Penticton office.

Fraser said Argo has a superintendent looking into it to see what happened.

"It is an oddity, for sure," he said. "But if we've made mistakes, we will make good on it. We just have to go through the process. It is being investigated."

Kessler said if a pedestrian had been walking along the road at the time, the impact of the snow could have crippled or killed them.