A Slegg Building Materials tractor-trailer flipped and dumped its load of lumber and wood products on Tuesday, leading to the lengthy closure of one northbound lane of the Trans-Canada Highway at Deloume Road in Mill Bay.
A southbound lane was also closed for a time.
The driver was taken to hospital but was not seriously hurt. Although lumber from the truck was scattered, no one was injured in the crash, which happened about 8:30 a.m.
“The unfortunate thing about lumber is that when it hits, it tends to scatter, so it’s like a deck of cards because the bands snap off of it through the impact,” Slegg regional manager Bill Wyatt said. “We had some lumber skid across and damage a few other vehicles.”
He said the tractor-trailer was doing customer deliveries when it flipped.
It’s still unclear what caused the incident, Wyatt said, adding that workers from Slegg’s Langford and Duncan locations were at the scene of the incident for a good portion of Tuesday doing cleanup.
Delivery trucks were brought in to haul away the lumber.
“We’ve also had our safety people up there doing some investigations and working with the RCMP and [Commercial Vehicle Safety Enforcement] and the other parties,” he said. “Obviously, we need to interview the driver and get some details from him.”
The objective is to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again, Wyatt said.
He said the truck was carrying a variety of material, including finished lumber such as 2x4s and 2x6s, along with engineered-wood products.
“We’re going to continue delivering to the customers, and whatever might have been damaged we would obviously replace,” he said.
There were major delays after the crash, for which Wyatt apologized.
The highway was open again by about 5 p.m.
