Kettle Valley residents are still shaken up following a scary Sunday night crash on Chute Lake Road.
According to witness reports, the car in question was seen speeding up Chute Lake Road at speeds over 100 kilometres an hour.
At one point, the car was on the wrong side of the road before hitting the centre median, careening into the air and barrel rolling before landing on its roof.
“We saw the vehicle hit the crosswalk and fly over the median into the other lane,” said eyewitness Debbie Calligaro-Rae, who lives right near the scene of the accident. “It flipped in the air at least twice, rolled in the air.”
Calligaro-Rae’s husband, Daniel Rae, raced to the car and attempted to free the driver from the twisted wreckage.
With the help of a couple other neighbours, including off-duty emergency responders, Rae was able to lift the driver out and drag him away from the smoking car, which was leaking a significant amount of fuel.
Another witness to the accident followed the suspect car from near Summerhill Winery and reported that the car was driving erratically for some time before the crash.
Not only was the driver on the wrong side of the road for some time, but he also hit a lamppost at the bottom of the hill and continued driving before crashing near where Chute Lake Road becomes South Perimeter Way.
Multiple witnesses reported that the driver appeared clearly intoxicated, but those reports have yet to be confirmed by authorities.
“We saw the vehicle flying through the air, I'm actually really shaken up I didn't sleep all night,” Calligaro-Rae explained. “It’s really traumatized the whole neighbourhood.”
For Calligaro-Rae and many other residents, their brains immediately shifted to the neighbourhood’s children, many of which were enjoying the warm Sunday evening outside.
“All our kids play in that area and my son was playing hockey on Lakepoint, so my husband and I both ran out of the house screaming,” said another neighbour, Melanie MacLean. “There was a lemonade stand 50 ft away with 10 kids standing at it, he could've killed thirty kids yesterday.”
Both MacLean and Calligaro-Rae said that Chute Lake Road is in desperate need of speedbumps and that this isn’t the first time a car has crashed in the area.
“This is the fourth accident, major accident, we've had,” Calligaro-Rae said. “And it’s always people who aren't from here, they don't know the road, there's just not enough to slow them down.”
Both ladies, along with a number of other neighbours, are hoping that Sunday’s scary incident will be the final straw and that the City of Kelowna will take action.
Along with that, MacLean would also like the driver to step up and take responsibility.
“I don't know if anyone knows what part of Kelowna he lives in, but he should address the community,” Michaels said.
Thankfully, no bystanders were hurt during the crash and all the neighbourhood’s kids were able to wake up and go to school on Monday, but Sunday night is a bigger warning sign than anyone would ever want.
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