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A driver is asking the province and a road maintenance contractor to take responsibility after a dislodged manhole cover on the Trans-Canada Highway in Kamloops caused damage to a number of vehicles, including his own car.
Walter East, who lives in Pritchard, said he was travelling eastbound on Highway 1 near Peterson Creek at about 8:45 p.m. on Monday when the incident happened.
“I was in the passing lane. There was a car in front of me. They obviously noticed it — hit their brakes — and they were able to straddle it without hitting it. I wasn’t lucky enough,” East said.
“I hit it, and the front end of my car almost came right off the ground. Then I was able to safely pull over the shoulder of the road.”
East said the rim and tire on his Volkswagen Jetta sustained damage due to hitting the manhole cover. He said while he was working to install the spare tire, he witnessed four other vehicles on the shoulder of the highway with blown tires.
“I later found out that there’s at least seven or more people that have hit this thing,” East said.
East said he contacted Argo Road Maintenance — the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s contractor in the Kamloops region — but said the company didn’t take responsibility for the incident.
“They’re saying that they have no responsibility for it because they’ve been doing their inspections,” East said.
Castanet Kamloops has reached out to Argo Road Maintenance and the ministry for comment. Neither party was able to immediately provide a response.
East said Argo reported being called at 8:44 p.m. with the complaint, and dispatched an employee at 8:47 to fix the issue.
“In that time, a coworker also hit that manhole, and he actually witnessed Kamloops Fire Rescue come and place the manhole cover," East said.
East said ICBC has told him the incident is considered a collision, which will raise his insurance premiums.
He said he estimates a few hundred dollars’ worth of damage was done to the car, although he hasn’t yet checked underneath the vehicle.
East said he is hoping more drivers involved in the incident will come forward, helping to put pressure on the province and the contractor to take onus for the incident.
“I hope they're going to pay for the damages. There was a Mercedes that hit the thing — that’s a $100,000 vehicle. Why should they be responsible for that?” he said.
“Yes, you're behind the wheel. But that's a piece of the highway that's causing disruption, not the drivers."
