RCMP in the Comox Valley says they are looking into the possibility of charges against a driver after a serious head-on collision occurred in Black Creek on Sept. 2.
“We’re looking into it as the possible cause of being inattentive, not paying attention, whatever the cause of that might be,” says Const. Monika Terragni of the Comox Valley RCMP
The crash occurred shortly before 8 p.m. on Highway 19a across from the Black Creek Community Church.
The passenger of one of the two vehicles involved posted a dashcam video showing a pickup crossing the highway center line and crashing head-on into her car despite her husband’s attempts to avoid the impact.
“I wanted to share this video with (the) intention people use this as an example or realize what the consequences are of operating a vehicle irresponsibly,” Alla Korontenko posted on Facebook.
Korontenko also said she wanted to help those who assisted after the crash.
”I wanted to reach out to the community and express our utmost gratitude to everyone who came to help us after our horrific accident,” she wrote.
According to Capt. Jeff Caring of Oyster River Fire Rescue, first responders arrived on the scene to find a serious situation.
“When we got there it was quite obviously pretty high-velocity crash, vehicles were spread quite far apart,” Caring says.
Caring adds he was able to view the dashcam footage after it had been posted on social media.
”For us as responders getting to see that was quite interesting, we don’t usually get to see that and a lot of times there’s no inclination of how these events unfold before we get there, so it really paints a clear picture of how the vehicles ended up where they did,” Caring says.
Const. Terragni says investigators will review the footage as well to determine if any charges are appropriate under the Motor Vehicle Act.
“That really helps us to determine what happened, dash-cam footage is invaluable to a lot of our investigations,” Terragni says.
Terragni says dash-cam footage is very helpful in their investigations and with their increasing popularity, investigators can obtain them in many instances.
“Our investigators did attend the scene and didn’t note any causes of impairment so that’s why we’ve gone to the inattentive route,” she says.
Koronteko says she and her spouse and two and five-year-old children were badly hurt but did not sustain life-threatening injuries.
Caring says four individuals were transferred to hospital by ambulance in Monday’s incident with two others being taken away by friends or family members.
He says the area where the mishap occurred is a 60km/hr zone and is a common spot for crashes.
”We see a lot of crashes where it seems like people are going much faster than that so it would be nice if they were adhering to the speed zones and obviously paying attention when they’re driving,” Caring says.
He also noted that the crash happened on a very straight and clear area of the highway.
Korontenko says just a day after the accident she spotted a man holding his cell phone with both hands and texting while driving.
”Is it really worth it for people to not pull over for a few seconds if they need to text or reach for something or to answer a call?” Koronteko wrote.
Terragni says the posting of the crash video online serves as a good reminder to people to pay extra attention on the road whether they are driving or
“Had they not been paying attention the injuries could have been much, much worse. \They were able to veer off to the side a little bit which I think mitigated some of the injuries sustained in that crash,” Terragni says.
