On the morning of May 10, a commercial vehicle accident occured on Highway 3, two kilometres east of Jaffray. As of Tuesday afternoon, the RCMP are still investigating the incident.
“[At] about 5 a.m. this morning we had a rather serious motor vehicle accident out on Highway 3. What happened is a semi-truck had lost control on the highway and as a result had closed both the east and west bound lanes,” said Robert Wright of the RCMP on the morning of the accident.
The condition of the driver was not yet known and Drive BC estimated that the section of highway would re-open around 6 p.m. Tuesday evening.
Mainroad East Kootenay Contracting was managing traffic control and had a detour in place using Bethania Road.
“Due to the contents of the trailer it will be a somewhat lengthy clean up. We can expect a partial highway closure until later on this afternoon,” Wright said.
The longer than normal clean up was due to the hazardous material that the truck was hauling. As of Tuesday afternoon, the RCMP said the material posed no public risk.
“[There] is no necessary concern for public safety as it sits right now, however due to the contents we have to have a special hazmat team go in there and just make sure it is safe for the people who will be cleaning up the site,” said Wright.