No one was injured after a vehicle carrying three people hit a ditch and flipped over on the Malahat highway Saturday morning.
“It was pretty intense, but it was a good call for everybody involved,” said Malahat Fire Chief Rob Patterson, after confirming three young men landed in a ditch north of the South Shawnigan Lake Road turnoff.
Eyewitnesses said the vehicle was heading north at a high rate of speed when it went across oncoming lanes about 8 a.m. before travelling up the ditch where it flipped over.
“Everybody got out OK,” Patterson said. “There were no broken bones, and everybody’s going to go home at the end of the day.”
By the time Patterson and his Malahat Volunteer Fire Department crews arrived on the scene, passersby had extricated two of the men from their silver vehicle, he said.
“The third one was left in the vehicle until we got it stabilized, because it was in danger of rolling over. We had to chain it to one of our fire trucks to stop it from rolling down the ditch.”
The major casualty was the vehicle, which Patterson described as “really messed up.”
Southbound lanes had to be shut down for about 90 minutes, slowing traffic to a standstill before conditions normalized.
Motorists were more patient than those who hurled verbal abuse at first responders as they struggled to save a severely injured man’s life after a crash during the afternoon rush hour on Oct. 27.
The Malahat was closed in both directions, from the summit to the Bamberton exit, for about three hours following a two-vehicle crash near Mountain Meadows RV Park and Campground.
The RCMP had to be called in to assist with crowd control as a number of frustrated motorists vented their anger.
“That was the worst I’ve ever seen,” recalled Patterson, who said the situation was much more civilized Saturday morning.
“With the past few calls we’ve had when we had to shut down the highway, we got incredible support,” said Patterson, whose crews were recently moved when they showed up at the fire hall for a practice drill and found two dozen long-stemmed roses and a card from a woman in Gordon Head expressing her gratitude.
He said customers at Tim Hortons have bought coffee for his crews once they spot their Malahat Fire Department jackets.
“The number of people who are going off are in the minority,” he said.
“The outpouring of positive support we’ve been getting since that last outburst has been just incredible.”
